SOME pupils in Livingstone have complained of difficulties to embrace the new education curriculum which involves teaching in local languages.
A grade four pupil at Zambezi basic school in Livingstone, Barbra Mwaanga, said it was currently difficult for her and other pupils to learn Tonga at school because they were usually taught English in their homes.
Barbra said it would be difficult for pupils to understand certain terms in subjects like Science and social studies in local languages.
Other pupils, who declined to be named, said most teachers were not conversant with Tonga and hence the situation would be worse with pupils.
The pupils stated that there were no learning materials in local languages and hence it would be difficult to teach.
A concerned parent Ester Phiri said the newly introduced programme of teaching in local language was good but that it would disadvantage slow learners.
Ms Phiri feared that slow learners would have problems as they went to higher grades because they would fail to interpret the things they learnt in the local languages to English.
“We have a situation where most of these children especially the slow learners will fail to interpret what they learnt in the local languages to English as they get to higher grades.
So this will be a problem, but I hope the Government will quickly come up with measures and teaching aids that will help both the teacher and the pupils,” she said.
Recently, some teachers in Livingstone resisted the new curriculum by the Ministry of Education as most of them were not Tonga.
They said the compulsory use of Tonga when teaching would make it even more difficult for pupils to understand because most of the teachers themselves were not conversant with the language.
The idea is that if a teacher cannot speak the local language where he is working he will be transfered to a province he is comfortable with the language
I like it, peaceful ethnic cleansing. Also we want the president to be addressing the nation in the language they feel comfortable.
Comfortable = Temfwetemfwe
The solution is simple,, if those teachers cant speak tonga or lozi in livingstone,, send them to their ancestral land, because livingstone is a lozi/tonga land…. especially if there are bemba send them to Kasama, a town is limbo with no chitimukulu, no fuel and expensive mealie meal from the time GBM was declared an illegal Zulu and facing deportation to south africa..Yes if there any tongas or lozis in bembaland send back where they come from..
Good job PF you are doing great!!!
Never mind, this is CNP @his best.
Wait until those kids graduate and join the blog. It will be a hybrid of Greek and jagon.
What about our children? Do they have to be transferred to other provinces or to the UK?
That’s will be discrimination and violation of one’s rights as put in the constitution. It will mean that a Tonga teacher cant work in any part of the country accept southern province and so is for other languages.
i would have been better if they started with grade ones so that they could monitor their progress but this here will cause total confusion among pupils. who comes up with such things anyway English everybody wants to lean it don’t deny it Zambians . tribalism soon hitting us in the worst way and by the end of the day total anarchy ,pf government had hight hopes then but now total bs
Wel,i dont c that to be a viable solution.we would b creating an imbalance coz some regions wil definately have a shortage of teachers unless u say we will begin training teachers fo specific provinces.n wat about the kids whose parents move around alot-t means they wil spend thr tym learnin languages instead of doin the actual sku work…now is not the tym to start teachn in our local languages,ts tym to move forward
that will promote tribalism;meaning that everyone can only work in the province of their origin and moreover,some provinces may have a shortage of teachers in an event that only few teachers are available from a particular region
Malabishi!! Isn’t just a single subject of the local venacular language sufficient? If proficieny in that language need be attained, let that be compulsory till junior secondary school, there after it will be an option like in the by-gone years. If anything needed to be tinckered with, it should have been strengthening and increasing content in English, Maths and Science (this includes IT)
ifyakukopakopa..china teaches in local language so inafwe twalatwala pa ZED
Half baked idea by a half baked PF govt led by an illeducated Sata.These Tonga kids have no local words for scientific terms thus handicapping them in int’l competitiveness.
Lusaka district and most copperbelt towns are cosmopolitan and its very unfair to impose one dialect on the rest who are merely there for employment purposes. Why should a Lusaka based Tonga wife with a Kaonde husband have their offpring forced to learn how to speak Nyanja which has no relevance whatsoever for the kid’s future?
This is what happens when you grow up insulting in Swahilli and Bemba. Cant tell idiocy from sense. How sad for Zambia. Local languages have always been an,option or subject in schools. Guess some people truly never,went to school to know .shame
This is akin to the Cambodia’s Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge times and their Year Zero concept. What next? Wait for 2016 and the PF will be crying out for another 5 year term to continue projecting their warped view of their world onto the people of Zambia. “Twalabapoka icalo…”
What we need is change management. This should be a process introduced in stages and not a big bang!
This is total failure! Where is the One Zambia One Nation if teachers will only teach in places where they can operate in the local language. This is backward thinking to say the least. Government should re consider its stand on this important education issue.
In Tanzania, they use Swahili up until Form 4. Their citizens are really disadvantaged on the international market and lots of jobs are taken up by Kenyans and other nationals who have a better understanding or English.
Botswana uses the same method.In comparison to pupils attending English Medium Schools,those from govt.schools are disadvantaged.That the reason why most parents now take their kids to English Medium schools and in secondary follow The International General Certificate of Secondary Education ( IGCSE).Those from the government schools will be required to spend an extra year to learn English if they have to be accepted in UK universities.
PF experimental Policy changes are dengerous. They ve divided the Ministry of health into 2, phased out Basic Schs without putting up more secondary schs first, where will the grade seven go then? And now changing the curricurum into local language b4 thinking of a Ngoni Teacher who is in Western province and also the Teacher who was not trained to teach in local language! Sad indeed, we’re going back into stone age error!
@ tumbuka pride your observations are varied. and as u rightly point most local languages have no scientific terms.this is a point where we are calling for language specialist to come up with language items.by the way these language items are mostly smuggled frm other languages.people of zambia let us embrace this local language approach to teaching.challenges we shall face but benefits outweigh anticipated hiccups.also simple fact stand that we should not be too rigid.a rigid mind never learns and it is stationary until it is crushed.personally av encouraged ‘my’ teachers to whole heartedly accept the idea having considered the literacy deteriation level zambian pupils was running at.
Unless i can use my beloved chi tumbuka or english then i’ll have non of this *****ic idea.My mind won’t be colonised by bembas,Lozis or any other tribe but i’ll take neutral swahili if i find a teacher.Any swahili teachers here?
language is no for identification but for commununication. Other countries are introducing chineese languege in order to get connected to a greater population of the chineese speaking people and tap in their technology and tread. we have so many langueges in zambia and this can only work wrer we recognise one local languege as official and develope it because most of our langueges are not develope and can not helpe us in any way. I fear this will creat lauguege bariers tribalism and backwardness
#banda phiri compare countries like China and Russia who have their own languages in science.They are doing quite well but in the end every university graduate now wants to learn English and learn it well.Ask yourself why?
We should have first selected a school in each province to experiment then after a certain period do an evaluation.
Please don’t try to implement your thesis for you PhD on innocent children.Dr.Katele Kalumba did the same with Hospital/District health boards of management.Where are they now?
Wht a gud curriculum, seriously one completes her/his education bt can’t right an article in any local language… Wht u shud undrstnd with a political policy of PF is centred on SOCIALISTIC kind of governance… Making sure tht the poor and the rich ar equalitated. A majority of Zambian children frm Grade 1-4 expresses and easily transform signs and situations in local languages commanding their tounges… Very few children in this country of more thn 75% poor families does undstnd English very well…
At senior level, ths curriculum has jst answered all the needs our youths lacked…
“equalitated!!!…..
“A majority of Zambian children frm Grade 1-4 expresses and easily transform signs and situations in local languages commanding their tounges… Very few children in this country of more thn 75% poor families does undstnd English very well…”
Maybe this curriculum will help …a majority of people like you in commanding their tounges..
Ati….”Other pupils who declined to be named”….Boza ba LT
… I still think more thought needs to be dedicated to this. The most important question being, “do we really need to tech our kids in local languages?”. Teaching of local languages is the responsibility of families – not the school. Let local languages be an option that parents can use to avoid this nonsense.
What are we hoping to achieve by teaching in local languages. This completely blocks our children from accessing the wealth of properly researched information on the internet because the information will be in English.
After 4 years of local language poisoning, our children will be 9 to 10 years old and will have to unlearn and re-learn everything from scratch in English; effectively either nullifying the last four years, or living with broken English for the rest of their…
This is the worst idea. Why is English an official language. Then they should also change the language of instruction at UNZA. How do you train children in languages which are not gonna benefit them once they go to high schools and University. Rubbish idea
yes this is a very rubbish idea. What will this benefit the country? I think this is just some kind of xenophobia! I had a chance to learn with people from a neighboring country where such a policy is in place in Europe, they were really disadvantaged – they could not articulate issue, they could not easily follow lessons, they could not easily interact, but kept to their group, their dissertations had serious grammar problems.
This is another thoughtless & impulsive policy. It is expected that teachers all of the sudden will with some magic become conversant with local languages in the arrears they teach with the proficiency needed to effectively deliver lessons. I had an opportunity in my academic training to learn with people where such a policy and clearly it had a bearing on their ability to adapt and were always trailing. For me this is a very unnecessary policy.
dont wory teachers it wil not work.pf is good at introducing programmes and all ends at introduction stage without making any follow ups afterwards.eg minimum wage,hologram,diferent colours for buses for each province,changing of vilages into districts,8000 link zambia etc
Reviving military training for school leavers…….
Let this system start with the new govt pre-schools( wallofeya ),not with pupils already in the system it is just bringing confusion.
Check it. Tanzanians are still dealing with the effect of doing away with English language in their schools.
My friend is Tanzanian and has a hell of lot of problems expressing herslef in English even though she has lived in UK formore the 10 years. She still has difficulties understanding some english phrases and she sometimes converses with me in Swahili without realising it and when the penny has dropped, she feels embarrased that I have not understood a word she has said….
This local language thing is so bush please drop it before people get lost. Instead of the authoritties regulating the so many so called schools which are not teaching our kids but merely collecting lots of money from so called school trips and children can barely read or write
are these ideas from sata or what? each day that passes am hating this person. none english speakers want to learn english, sata have you ever invented anything in your bisa apart from ‘donchi kubeba’. is donchi kubeba bisa?
next government should consider reversing these thoughtless policies from these CNPs
I did my primary school in 3 provinces,lusaka=chewa,(grade 1-3),mumbwa=Tonga,3-4,solwezi,4-6 (kaonde)and back to Lusaka.truthfully speaking in mumbwa and solwezi,i used to be the last of all.as a son of a civil servant and born in an English speaking family.its not the best approach to reintroduce local language.in grade 7 i didn’t write chewa in final but managed to pass.its good for rural areas not in towns which have diversify cultural languages.for those parents with a big vision for their kids ,this program is retrogressive.most of politicians will not/don’t take their children to govt schools,why?
Michael Sata – the failure of a nation.
The future of Zambia is the our poor kids English levels will be so poor and they won’t be able to compete on the international market. Graduates from non-English speaking countries usually have a hard time landing a good job in western countries due their poor English abilities. This is the fate of our children
This system failed in Botswana. They used to teach them in Tswana up to grade 7, but stopped and are now teaching them in English from the beginning. When Zambians emigrated to Bots, the pupils who were passing number last in Zambia became top of class in Bots. Questions to MoE:- Have any technical books been translated into Zambian languages? Will UNZA & other colleges teach in local languages too? Will all the prescribed books at UNZA library be translated? Will these pupils be able to study/work abroad? Let us not be short-sighted & play around with children’s lives.
The Tanzanians have been on this path for a long time. As a result, the Kenyans and Ugandans grabbed all the multinational jobs in the so called East African Union. The rest is history. Most Tanzanians have a tough time speaking English.
spot on
This marks the end of it all. UNZA will be hard-pressed to translate material in local languages; imagine saying, Ustilago maydis undergoes dimorphic switching from filamentous to single cells in Chewa, Lozi or Bemba or saying phosphofructokinase is inhibited by the product of the reaction in catalyzes in Kikaonde!
Good luck!
@NEO-PATRIOT: Indeed. And, not only do they have problems with English, they also have problems dealing with global phenomena in their context, social cognitive coherence, etc, whereby you meet educated Tanzanians who still seem to be like “mafala” i.e simple-minded country-folk in terms of adapting to the survival tools and the complexity of the times.
Fulishi policy, but we already have subjects in our vernacular language now what are they trying to prove. It is better the way things are because we are still a programme in vernacular. Those in Chipata they have Nyanja, in the copperbelt, Luapula and northern they learn Bemba in schools and in western and southern province Lozi and Tonga respectively, but now what are these PF talking about? All I can say here is that they do not have anything significant to show to the people that this is what the PF have done. Hence changing/creating policies unnecessarily. Panga Fighter have failed indeed.
What local language is being taught at Lusaka international school? Nyanja? Tonga?
Kekekekekeke, this one is really lousy to say the least. International School with all the diplomats’ children their teaching in local language? That would be confusion for sure.
I actually was totally flabergasted last week when raed about one education borad secretary from Livingstone advising teachers who cannot teach in Tonga to ask for transfers.
This policy is really, really lousy and all should treat it with the contempt it desrves!
Koma Job on training yavuta lol.Teacher and pupil will be learning @the same time. T. .Correcting the teacher by a grade2 will be challenging if that pupil anderstands the language better than the instructor. Atleast teachers should have been given a year to learn and understand these languages after school.
The PF government is right on this score. I assume that Tonga pupils and Teachers in other provinces feel the same. Anybody who is uncomfortable with learning a particular language is free to shift to anywhere else in Zambia. One Zambia one Nation. Stop encouraging tribalism and ethnic hegemony.
Dude. Think. That is all.
BF @ 6.2, you are right, even western countries are preparing their next generation of engineers, bankers, teachers and scientists for a world dominated by China. The people in this Govt are either just plain stupid or extremely naive. We go to school to strategically position our country by educating the next crop of leaders, and I struggle to see how teaching in a localised language which is not even known on the continent of Africa let alone the World, could achieve this. Could the moron who came up with this please stand down before it goes any further.
Apart from promoting tribalistic sentiments, this policy will disadvantage Zambians as in the example of Tanzania. Many of our neigbours look to the Zambian example of unity in diversity. Our good command of English makes it so much easier to adapt abroad, remember it’s now a global village.
For the sake of our children I suggest we get back to English as medium of instruction and a local language as one of the subjects
PFoolish, impulsive and retrogressive. Messing up everything in its path way, including education. How do you implement a program whose custodians have not been prepared. Can every teacher say what “gravity” is called in Bemba, Nyanja or Lozi. Did they not need to be trained in the language and its concepts before the curriculum (though political not educational) is implemented. And if the idea is to transfer teachers, why was it not done before so that everything is in place before you start rolling out the classes? Cabinet…..Are these guys ever serious? where are the educationists and planners to end up with such a foolish educational structure?
Zambia is going to the dogs. Let us not copy and paste what China, Japan, Korea etc are doing. In these countries, there is only one language used at home, school, work, church, everywhere and so it makes sense. Zambia is a small under-developed country which survives on hand-outs from rich nations who dictate how their money should be used. Our children will fail to compete at international level because of poor education foundation that was caused by learning in local languages. Secondly. this system will encourage tribalism where bembas will not teach in western province, for example, because they cant speak lozi. The country should have been consulted instead of imposing a system that will fail our people
What is photosynthesis in Bemba and Kaonde?
talk about diffusion, excretion etx
1. Teachers do not have the skill to teach in these languages unless they go back to school for intensive training
2. Some schools have children of Asian or European persuasion
3. There are no materials e.g. text books and so on in every language for every subject
4. Most teachers are not even fluent in these languages
5. Bemba teachers teaching in Southern province, Tonga teachers working in Northern province etc
6. Children transfered to other provinces because of nature of parents jobs
I appeal to those bloggers supporting this hopeless policy to counter each of my points with a proposed and workable solution seeing that this nonsense has already been implemented without even consulting the ZNUT!!
THE IDEA IS GOOD BUT IS IMPLEMENTATION IS NOT. YOU CAN’T TAKE CHILDREN THAT ARE ALREADY USING ENGLISH AND TURN AROUND 360 DEGREES AND START SPEAKING TO THEM IN A LOCAL LANGUAGE. THIS WILL CONFUSE AND DISTURB THEM ESPECIALLY GRADES 2 AND 3. WHAT THE GOVT SHOULD HAVE DONE WAS TO GIVE A THREE OR SO YEARS NOTICE THAT CHILDREN STARTING GRADE 1 IN THREE YEARS TIME WOULD BE TAUGHT IN VERNACULAR, THIS WOULD HELP PARENTS, TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS TO PREPARE. WITH THE ISSUE OF INTERMARRIAGES IT IS DIFFICULT FOR SOME TEACHERS TO OPERATE IN A LANGUAGE THAT IS NOT THEIR MOTHER TONGUE, WHAT DO YOU DO THEN, BEGIN TO TRANSFER TEACHERS?
I LIKE WYNTER KABIMBA. THIS WAS HIS IDEA AND ALAS AM SURE IT ‘S GONNA BE IMPLEMENTED. WYNTER CHIKALI SANA
This is meaning less. We can do better than this. Learning a new language may even be more development than enhancing your own language. Language is for communicating and not for identity as our dear government wants to think. Please stop tribalism, nepotism and all bad and stupid vises. Do our ministers have their own children?
Is this problem only in Tongaland?As far as iam concerned there is no problem in
Chipata no problem in mongu where ever except livingstone.
so this was after you did a tour of all schools and provinces in the country? Am assuming you are speaking from an informed position, am I right?
Are you sure of that?
U have to know the Livingstone language situation to understand this my friend. I u don’t know a person u speak to them in either English or broken Nyanja first and then switch to the language they respond to u in. In short u have to at least understand English, Tonga, lozi and Nyanja. Bemba has crept in to some degree also though not as a first language like the others.
Imagine a child being sex organs in bemba hahahahah!
Penis @ Doyo??? Then it goes @ cakupangilako abana. Hahahahahahaha
The idea is good, but the way Government are going about it is terrible!
Good idea, but impractical in a country like Zambia which has so many local languages, and so much mix of the population! Please, let us go back to what we have been practicing for the past so many years!!……..
Now to improve our education system has first to begin with our perception of it.Education is meant to solve problems or current and focused future challenges in whatever field a pupil has interest in.That should ,in my opinion been the primary focus.Talent identification or special ability identification in children ,coaching them to be problem solvers at an early age,and of course teaching them communication skills in languages that will better improve our understanding of the world beyond our boundaries.e.g.chinese ,german as optional and local languages as non optional while general lessons should continue in english.
What is the position of znut,Pta ,local leaders,teachers,the opposition.
The irony here is that you will see all the policy makers and all ministers including the president taking their children to private schools because they would want them to learn good English so that they could have an advantage in the job market and international trade. Think!
Zambia has 72 languages can some clearly explain how the new curriculum will be implemented in local language?? Yes its there in Botswana but with 1 language correct me if I am wrong.
Bloggers check dudelove comments. I for 1 my child shes in reception class at Nkana Trust, I am not bragging she doesn’t understand any local language despite having named her our tribal name.
Now grade 1 starting leaning Icinyanji Bemba and so on how will I be helping her homework in cibemba??? They would have started with experimenting with 1 school and see how it goes before implementing.
You are wrong! Zambia does not have 72 languages. In Western province where there are more than 25 ‘tribes’ nobody speaks Subiya, Kalanga, totela, Shanjo, Sifwe, etc. I have also never heard anyone speak Bisa not even Sata or Nkandu Luo!
Botswana does not have one language called Tswana. Setswana is just the chosen lingua franca .They have other languages such as kalanga, Herero, Shekalagadi and Lozi speaking tribes of totelas, subiyas etc in the North.
The future of this Country lies in these Children we want to confuse today.
1. First Teach the Teachers the languages for them to teach the kids
2. It is unnecessary cost to start translating books into these language
3.Its not possible for govt to stop parents from using english in homes.
4. About foreigners/ expatriates who are here for short period of time, you are creating confusion please.
We voted for better Zambia not confusions, we beg you think through…
This movie in pf is really complicated I can’t follow it.
The local luanguage is already taught in schools . The idea of GRZ is good let all the children learn local language and english at the same time in their particular areas, so that everyone should learn how to write and read in his/her mother tongue. The original language for a computer is english you can translate some of the words but some technical words remain in its original language english. For example, a computer made in Germany, Spain, Italy or Sweden english words are there even if they have translated to their languages. So it will be good for our children to learn computer in their languages. Job creation is now available for translation of the software in vernaculars. If we have english teacher, why can’t we have a teacher in Soli, Lenje or Tumbuka specific?
These teacher who are saying are not conversant with Tonga are not being true to the nation and themselves. Can’t I learn Bemba if I am transfered to Chinsali? We don’t want people who see themselves as superior than others, hence some tribes condemn Tonga to the fullest and won’t learn the language even when they stay in Southern province for a long time. Sometimes lets really be realistic, hence one can’t die if he or she learns Tonga. Victimize Tongas at your own peril and don’t say you where not told.
Just take you children to the village for two weeks, that’s enough.
In this new education curriculum they would have include also English subject as a pass for every pupil/student, since we learn all the subjects in english language. It is not true that one have failed in english and could not accepted to enter into a college or other learning institution. Please GRZ take into consideration also this point.
The implemetation of new curriculum needed time-whereby pilot schools are used to monitor the programme carefully.The current scenario leaves room for alot of speculation and indecision on the part of the designers. pupils and their teachers are stuck in the middle.MOE should have embarked on this programme in phases unlike abrupt changes like we have noticed shortfalls already.
This is a brilliant innovation by the PF government. This is not an era to bury head in the sand. Let’s face the reality. Children will learn better in local languages in the early grade 1-4. English will be taught from grade 5 upwards. adapting concepts learned in lower primary to english language will be easier. Even now local languages are taught in schools and are examinable. Only incorrigible tribalists can oppose the idea. The arguement that children will be deprived of chance to speak english language if taught in local languages is hollow. What english? People should know that the calibre of today’s mass of secondary school pupils leaves much to be desired in terms of english language command, hence the accelerated rate of poor academic performance.
It should have been change of content and NOT language. The process to review the content should have been consultative or should be consultative – with a possibility of online submission. Zambia belongs to every citizen who is in the country or outside, who is politics or not. It is so sad that our leaders distance themsleves from sound and free advice once they are voted in office. The level of immaturity among our leaders is shocking – we need the maturity of people like Hon. Lubinda who understand thier responsibilities. We have allowed a lot of thugs to mislead a great nation. We should find a solution to this challenge where thugs and criminals find themselves in positions they dont deserve. Our political system has no room for sound engagement and decent thinking.
I now know clearly that most bloggers on this site are too young to link the past to the present. Local language teaching was there in schools and learners used to make tremendous progress in the first grade. It also gives me insight as to understand the inability of those opposing the local language teaching idea to transmit english language in writing and verbally. In other words, I’ m challenging those opposed to the idea to embark on english teaching of their children in their homes if at all they know much in english. As for scientific terms in local languages, there are plenty in Bemba. For example, umungololo, akalaso, umuti, akabesha mulilo, umulilo wakwa lesa, icifishe lungu, umukola mfula, ilangi amenshi, amafuta, bongobongo, insandesande, amani, kaling’ongo, fulwe, inama,…
Well said you chicken. To try and correct you isnt it supposed to be Umubemba nkonko? Your Mubemba inkonko is closer to chicken than to the real meaning of true Bemba. Seriously what you have said is knowledge most bloggers here are lacking . Languages are dynamic unless they are dying. Any scientific term will find a relevant word waiting for it in Vernacular
Is this surely a priority? Coz am damn sure a serious load of Zambians is still languishing out there. Maybe mealie meal gets cheaper if you use vernacular when buying it…..
Education is the number one priority in the nation.
I’m lucky I completed my education b4 PF.
My worry is for my unborn children, surely, do thy need to learn
vernacular to the detail? Are we not doing well with the ED systems
went through b4 now? Lets not complicate lives of the innocent!
I’m applying for further studies & this is the statement on
the English Policy for institution:
Proof of secondary education completed in English
Candidates from the following countries meet the requirement
by presenting a secondary school diploma from an English-speaking
school:
Botswana
Cameroon
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Malawi
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Swaziland
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
why should we have Zambia removed from such lists!
*****
The best is to make local language as a compulsory subject up to grade 7,the way it was in our times as opposed to replacing English it is very retrogressive.Already to work in UK we subjected to English exams.
From the comments above, those for are far less than those against this change. So, WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD? HOW ARE WE GOING TO PROGRESS?
Sata is trying to bring the system which was used where he comes from, Tanzania some decades back. I remember we used to laugh at Tanzanians as “brothers who can’t speak the Queen’s language”. They never had any advantage over us academically. But mind you they have a common language there Swahili so there was some harmony. So if I was schooled in Southern Province, I can’t work in Northern Province because of language, like I can’t work in Angola because of Portuguese. The whole idea is nonsense. We will never catch up with whites with this Bantu education they are trying to introduce because our children don’t even understand our native languages very well. They understand English better. So every language and province will have its own scientific terms and once you are…
So every language and province will have its own scientific terms and once you are transferred to another province, your children have to learn another language? What a retrogressive idea! It is a fact that if we were taught in our own mother language we were going to understand theories better like the Boers, Chinese, Indians do but unfortunately our native languages are not the “mother languages” of our children. They don’t think in Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga, Lozi etc. but in English, except those who are brought up speaking native languages mainly in villages and compounds who are becoming fewer and fewer. Shame!
What language are Parliamentarians using? So what will be the official language? For now Bisa?
To start with teachers were never taught in local languages… What language will be used on the the Copperbelt? What is spoken on the Copperbelt is not real Bemba. Even the people who purport to know Bemba can neither fully understand nor speak actual Bemba.
Most of the arguments here are from uninformed opinions. Iam not Bemba but I was taught the language from Grade one to 7. This means I can now understand Tumbuka, Bemba and Nyanja . I do wish I had gone to school in Southern Province too so that I could speak Tonga. Speaking each other’s languages is more unifying than political sloganeering. Learning local languages improves them. There’s nothing like there are no words for ‘computer’ in Tonga. Language always invents new words. Those which dont usally die. Do people here want to kill their local languages?
@Wallofeya the idea is not to replace English but to rope the local languages into the steps of progress.
This is rubbish. I finished my grade 12 without attending local language classes but am able to speak and write my mother language without much problems. Its up to us parents to teach our children our mother tongue.
I agree with Chintelelwe 100%.
The whole idea, which I believe was created by shorite Kabimba, is utter crap! This government has really set out to destroy Zambia. The sooner they scrap this idea the better for the children.
This is rubbish! Some of us are public servant who are moved across the country where our services are needed,how retrogessive is it going to be our children if they have to learn these local languages wherever they go? Academically they ll be affected,learning another language from the scratch.
…this is the most weird, senseless blanket piece of legislation/policy to be thot of in this modern Zed. I wonder if the policy makers/implementers had any interest of the vulnerable children or children from poor families. The idea is to make their(policy makers) children and grand children in a long run feel superior over the other children as far as speaking and understanding English is concerned. I’m talking from experience. I felt very inferior when ever we mingled with children from the Convent who, in grade five would articulate in English whereas us from govt schools…mama..mama. We shied away from contributing on any topic for fear of being laughed at…….
So, is the policy a Hit or Miss…?…for me its definitely a MISS
@RB no wonder your English is like that, you write like you didn’t pass your English Paper 2 at Grade 12. Your grammar is simply pathetic, not to mention your spellings. How do you support such a backward idea. Ask the Tanzanians who are taught in Swahili, you will find out how they struggle on the international scene to get scholarships because their English is poor. Is that what you want you children to experience in future?
lets be practical like this, please teacher may i go outside, in kaonde, napopwela bafunjishi mbena kukeba kulupuka pangye naku taya mema. iliko bad iyi.
I suppose Venter Kabimba motted this idea before the Bemba tribalism he talked about started haranguing him?.
sometimes u need 2 think without been remainded,how wud the human reproductive organs both for male and female be discribed in local languages eg bemba..dont u think it wud sound as if u are now tryin to teach our children insults…eg penis (ubwamba)
testicles (amatole)
now does that make sense 2 u old fools
I would really support vernacular introduced as a compulsory subject, not teaching all subjects in vernacular.I really hope that was the initial idea then someone misunderstood.
Bemba, Tonga, lozi, luvale, Nyanja will never take you anywhere. The curriculum proposal is retrogressive. How will pupils cope up when they get to grades eight to university where those tribes are not taught? Zambia is a developing country you can’t compare to Russia and China. Grow up in decision making. This is a poor policy.
This sytem of teaching in Local languages will be a disaster because most teachers dont know the local anguages and will fail to teach in local languages.It also means that pupils will find it extremely dificult to learn especially when one is transfered from one province to another.For example how do you expect a child to continue learning in a loal language if he/she is in Mongu and may be the family moves to Chipata?What about the teachers are they going to be trained in the local languages everytime they are transfered or are we saying that there will be nomore transfers?Do we have enough teachers in all provinces that will teach in local languages?How do chose which of the manylocal languages to use for teaching?I think thiswontwork and it should be rejected and abandoned immdiately!!
Teaching in local languages is the best present the current Government has given to Zambia. This is very good, as we all know that intelligence,engineering, science and algorithms do not depend on English. It is high time we away with English, It is disheartening when you hear kids in shops speaking English poorly with terrible accent, Parents make mistakes of denying kids their birth right of using a mother tongue. Bravo Local languages
What of we who are mixed couples (Lozi/Tumbuka) and have opted for English? What is a simple term like condensation in your local language or trigonometry or calculus or even trajectory when doing earth problems. What of isosceles triangle? and brittle potato? Hey… wena….wana get in chukes?
The policy should be that, all schools should teach local languages as a compulsory subject and not teaching in local languages. Then, you can have this policy from grade 1 to 7 starting with grade 1s for 2014.
This is how solid well thought out policy statements are formulated and not this nonsense about teaching children in local languages. All well meaning district and provincial education boards should start submitting their findings to the ministry of edication in Lusaka that the current policy pronouncement cannot be implemented due to teachers being from a variety of tribes and pupils being similarly mixed.
As currently framed, the policy is totally archaic and unimplementable, never mind the children themselves being unable to follow the act!
It is so clear that this stupid policy came from Chumbu Ukwa himself, just because he can’t express himself in English , he wants to rub it onto everyone else.
This local lingual thing is a none starter. It would have been better just to reintroduce local languages as an examinable taught subject – period. I wouldn’t mind my child learning a local language as a subject but to teach them all the subjects in some local language NO WAYS, we have refused. We don’t even have enough competent teachers let alone text books to see this thru. More MONEY in the drain for sure.
Total madness from this government. I am all for the preserving of languages and culture but they must be a simple solution to this nightmare. Why not let the Zambian people through a referendum vote for another official language to go along side english? Surely once the majority of the citizens have spoken then we can phase in a new language. Elo when it comes to planning this administration is useless. Why not have all these useless changes take into effect lets 5 yrs from now? Gives time for people to prepare…..its called long term planning for the useless animals running our country a total shame indeed.
I welcome the introduction of local languages in schools. Alas, this is not the manner thought this would go. Is Wynter the genius behind this idea? The PF on this baitaya..Local langueas should be taught in schools and they should be compulsory.. Instruction in local languages when you do not have the tools to do then becomes a challenge. As one observer has put it, a pilot could have been considered, evaluated and lessons applied… Our compariosn to China or Russia is really meaningless.. the Russians and Chinese are in the fore front of learning in English…Let us not take our children back to 1900 in this global village..Lets get real and stop the pretence…. PF needs t omove to reall issues..
Why did they not start with grade one and leave the rest of the grades because they have already started in English? Starting with grade ones and progress with them up to grade four should have even given the Ministry of Education enough time to prepare as the demand should have been for a smaller number of pupils. Even evaluation should have been objective. Grade four, three and two are most likely to be less impressed by this change
Total madness from a totally out of touch government that does not even understand its own program. Instead of globalization as in language’s i.e French, Chinese, Arabic just to mention butt a few. Why these languages? We need to prepare our children for the global market. We’re all Zambians and we need to live and work wherever we choose. Regionalisms is gona take hold and sectarian divisions will bring Zambia down. What’s wrong with the old system were a local language is an option unlike teaching in local languages? These Ministers children don’t even know how a compound school looks like. Make mathematics, science, information tech etc as subjects kids will be undertaking. Backward thinking PF.
How can the government even be allowed to do such *****ic things? Even if they do want to implement their stupid ideas they should be implemented properly as in this case they should have simply started with those in grade one so as not to disturb the progression of students in higher grades. This directive will also reflect badly on the students as when they leave school and go on to do further education all the material the find will be in English and they will find it very difficult to learn and become or interact with with the highly educated. yes we need to keep our culture and teach it to our kids but surly there are better ways of doing this.
what a load of rubbish!
Why is everything just imposed on us? I think we’re in for a rude awakening. Why did kabimba announce this on behalf of the education minister ? This is political and designed to bridge the gap between kaponyas and the educated.
English is now taboo,colonial and outdated.Enter vernacular and who can argue with kaponyas in bemba or nyanja.
This is the only promise PF have delivered. It’s the “don’t kubeba” promise meaning “don’t tell (teach) the children in English.”
Didn’t they tell us beforehand?
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