lower grades has impressed Government has most learners have responded
positively. Here, Education Deputy Minister David Mabumba monitoring
the use of icibemba at Ray of Joy Primary School in Nchelenge
Government says the mixed reactions coming from members of the general pubic on the use of local languages in schools is worrying.
Director of Standards and Curriculum at the Curriculum Development Centre Cecilia Sakala said it is worrying her office that sections of society are less keen to use local languages as a medium of instructions from grades one to four under the new revised education curriculum.
Mrs . Sakala said it was important that stakeholders including the media come on board to help in sensitizing the public on the positive benefits of using familiar languages as mediums of instruction in schools.
She said that the use of local languages in schools was not a new phenomenon as even before pupils especially grade ones were taught in local languages.
The Director of Standards and Curriculum however said this did not mean that English will no longer be taught to pupils but be introduced in grade two as a subject.
She was speaking in Kabwe yesterday when she officially opened a two day sensitization workshop for media personnel on the new revised education curriculum held at Tuskers Hotel.
She however expressed optimism that the workshop carried out in conjunction with USAID, UNICEF and the Irish AID will make journalists understand the history of the curriculum development in Zambia and other important aspects of the education policy for them to easily interpret and disseminate it to the public.
And making a presentation on the national literacy framework principal curriculum specialist Boston Mwendende appealed to parents and guardians to support the policy as it was their continued resistance will not help the children in anyway.
Mr. Mwendende said it was surprising that children themselves had no problem with the language and complaints were only coming from adults.
And University of Zambia Senior Lecturer Dr John Simwinga explained that as way back as 1926, Britain then colonial masters, had recognized the use of local languages as an important tool in preserving culture and spirit of nationalism.
Dr Simwinga said that the use of local languages as a medium of instruction for learning for grades one to four was also implemented just when the country got independence.
The workshop has attracted over 40 participants from both community media and mainstream media organisations.
DE-EDUCATING ZAMBIA: That’s what you’re doing by prematurely introducing mother-tongue education as the main medium of instruction in our schools. Countries that have succeeded in this type of system have first spent many years of hard work and funding of language development to make their languages more precise and scientific. Right now we have the following problems:
1. Very few Zambian adults (parents and teachers included) are able to speak their mother tongue languages correctly
2. No study has ever been done on mother tongue competencies of teachers in Zambia in order to determine how they could most effectively be distributed all over the country.
3. Has there been an assessment of the availability or capabilities of authors and publishers of educational materials in our…
@ Wanu Ngwee
Whereas I, 100% agree with your contribution, I have to point out that you have omitted one fundamental problem that this agenda has failed to seriously take into account. We have a Zambia that is moving towards the 21st Centuary and being affected by the “globalisation phenomenon”. We cant change that and even at a local level, Zambians are moving across tribal and language boundaries everyday. Therefore the call for ‘local language’ based teaching cannot work and people are rightly concerned about it? Who and on what basis has the Copperbelt been placed on the “Bemba” list? Why should anyone ignore the native “Lamba” etc? What happens if parents are posted to Lusaka where the local language is different and a child is in Grade 2 or even 3?
The use of different languages will not wok on a country like Zambia where there are different languages. In Tanzania where it failed though, they all speak Swahili even though they have their first dialects. After this fails, then they will say let us use one language (which we all already know) accross the country which will give people of a certain region an advantage for the next 20 years or so until the whole country has started using the language generally (and we already know that this is their ultimate goal). If these “specialist” ignorants insist, let us then use a more familiar language accross the country which is Nyanja. Lets wait and hear. You can go to most western, southern, northwestern, northern and Luapula, central and Lusaka and all people speak some nyanja.
You got it all wrong Guys – that is why we will never support this MADNESS. Children should be taught in familiar language and not ‘Local Language’. Familiar language and local language are not necessarily the same. My child’s familiar language is English. Should such a child be taught in Chichewa which is totally alien to him just because he resides in Lusaka?
Please Government stop this rot. The children will be half baked if they do not speak adequate English. All machines they will be using when they start work will be in English they will not be in Bemba Tonga or Nyanja. One policy says a child should start school at the age of 7. The other says he/she will start learning English in grade 4. How old will this person be. if it is a girl she will be looking for a suitor already. Twapapata stop this. Let people be educated mwefinkula mwe. Let each parent choose wheather to teach vernacular to their child or teach them English. Your children will go to UK and America and learn so that when they come back they look like champions because our children can not even talk to each other because of language barrier
PF Backwardness to urge schools to teach in local languages. Minister of education must learn from advances in Malawi and Zimbabwe and struggling South African Locals. We have rejected this rot as even China has gone English.
Thank goodness my kids don’t have to be exposed to this nonsense.
why don’t we have a two-tier system where we can track those children taught in local languages and those taught in English for sometime and then publish the results. i am on the fence on this one. if your children speak the local language at home, then teach them the local language but if they use English at home, leave them to go on to use English as a medium of exchange and then take up the local language as a subject. what we need is scientific evidence that irrespective of the main language the child uses, they will perform better when taught in local language then we will wholeheartedly support it.
without shame some-one even quotes what happened in 1926 sure….??? Let them take this idea back to the drawing board. Maybe the idea can suit in typical rural setup…like shyang’ombo but certainly not Kansenshi primary in Ndola, woodlands primary in Lusaka, KCM Trust in chingola…etc.
My 5 yr old boy is more familiar with English than any local language…..but when I talk to him in my language he responds….
“And University of Zambia Senior Lecturer Dr John Simwinga explained that as way back as 1926, Britain then colonial masters, had recognized the use of local languages as an important tool in preserving culture and spirit of nationalism.”
What the British were doing was hiding knowledge from the ‘natives’ they didnt want you reading their books and knowing what they know they wanted you to be controllable.
This is retrogression of the worst kind.
zambians zats y ua dull.how do u hate yo mother tongue and u want 2 adopt a foreign language as yo mother tongue.2me zats nosense coz am proud of ma mother tongue.luk at tazania vry stable and comfortable wth their native language.