LANGUAGE:Let English be medium of instruction - 2

Dar es Salaam. Let me first outline the reasons, which I think English should be preferred to Kiswahili when it comes to deciding, which language should be used for teaching schoolchildren. The reasons are:

1. The government cannot force private schools to go for Kiswahili unless it intends to renationalise these schools

2. In terms of communication, the use of Kiswahili alone will isolate Tanzania from the rest of world

3. Kiswahili influence in the education sector will deny future generations from accessing most of the literature, which is and will be in English

4. Tanzanians will be cut off from the rest of the East African region and the world at large

5. Mastery of two languages is better than one

6. It is cheaper, easier and affordable to switch to English than Kiswahili and

7. Retention of both Kiswahili and English as media of instruction will only create social stratification in our nation.

Since the late 1980s Tanzania has been slowly placing itself under a capitalistic economic system, a system, which is guided by the principles of the free market. Today, as we awaiting the new Constitution, we have already resolved to be a capitalist nation, thus throwing away Nyerere’s philosophy of socialism and self-reliance and there is no hope that any creature in a short or long term that will be able to bring back Nyerere’s philosophy in Tanzania, regardless how good it was.

We have already liberalised the education sector since the 1990s and now we are pursuing a two-education system in one country - Kiswahili as the medium of instruction at public primary schools solely left for poor people and English for private schools for a well-do-with elite. Therefore, it is much more possible for public pre and primary schools to switch to English as the medium of instruction than for private schools to switch to Kiswahili.

For many centuries English has been an international language a person intending to communicate, learn or interact with English speakers must learn it. We are not learning English simply because we were once a colony, but because we are forced to do so by globalisation. Considering the time that we have been using English as both a teaching and an official language, abolishing it now will be a disaster.

Which country in today’s world takes English for granted? If we do not know the necessity of learning English till this time, then we might be strange in this world. Thus, English being an international language, its fluency is a must, both on an individual basis and for national development. As a country, we are still dependent of many things, hence we must act on the paradigms of interdependence. We cannot interact with other people properly in the world today without mastering English.

It is no dispute that English is both spoken and written by many people in many nations than any other language. Since most of the literature in the world is available in English, mastery of this language is a direct advantage to any person. Mastery of any language is eased by both spoken and written form.

The mastery of English through learning it as a mere subject cannot guarantee fluency and deep understanding for viable communication. It is through using it as the medium of instruction that a schoolchild can easily grasp a wide vocabulary every day of their learning.

Viable communication whether written or spoken is enriched by a variety of subjects a person learns every day through formal or informal settings.

Currently, we are trying to integrate ourselves as East Africans and what is uniting us with other countries in official business is the English language. It is still unknown, when other partner states will be ready and comfortable to use Kiswahili as an official language of their countries. Rwanda has recently switched to English language as a way of integrating themselves well with the first three East African countries.

If Tanzania decides alone to go for Kiswahili, we may do so for our own disadvantage and we won’t be able to cope with our neighbours, leave alone the world at large. On the other hand, Kiswahili being almost the mother tongue now for Tanzanians, will never die as also will be taught as subject from primary to secondary school level. After all, people, who have invested considerably in it cannot be prevented from using it simply because a certain class of people for reasons known to them are against it.

Ironically, the emphasis on the use of Kiswahili at all levels of education is a mere political and hypocritical statement of our leaders. The children of politicians and policy makers, leaders of different cadres, and even the proponents of Kiswahili itself, are not schooling in public primary schools where Kiswahili is used, rather they are in the best English medium schools.

Our political leaders may crazily in a short or long-term decide that schools should use Kiswahili, knowing that their own children will never meet Kiswahili along the way, and hence Kiswahili as the medium of instruction will remain for poor people, wherefore it will help them to be good voters of the ruling class. Such a segregation is unacceptable. Let us use one language for teaching all Tanzanian children for the common good.

I will believe only that Kiswahili is meant for all to use if I see the leaders’ children studying at public schools from primary to secondary level, otherwise it’s just politicking and taking the people for a ride!

There is, however, an unconfirmed argument that the poor academic performance by our students in secondary schools and colleges is associated with the use of English. For many years we have been witnessing massive failures in public primary schools, where Kiswahili is used for teaching. Comparatively, private schools using English as the medium of instruction have been doing extremely well all the time.

Hence, the problem is not the language it is rather the kind of poor system of teaching we use as a nation.

From the above evidence, it is possible to introduce English language to all public primary schools because now we have many teachers with diplomas and degrees in education, who are capable of teaching using English. Fortunately enough, the Ministry of Education and Vocational

Training has already abolished Grade III Teaching certificate, which was acquired through using Kiswahili as the medium of instruction. This means all future teachers in public schools will be diploma holders with sufficient knowledge of English language designated to teach at public primary schools.

Since we have many teachers (holders of diplomas and degree) now and since text books in English language are available because of the existence of a private education system, the government will never get any headache once it decides to go for English language as the teaching language at all levels of education.

We will only need to introduce a special programme of two years to prepare teachers for public primary schools and then get ready for take-off. Doing the opposite will cost us much and no doubt switching to Kiswahili as the language of teaching at all levels of education, not only is unacceptable, but is a crazy idea, which will never succeed in this generation or the next one.

The author is a lawyer/journalist. He can be reached at [email protected], 0756 440 175.