Parties split over teaching medium

Dar es Salaam. Major political parties are deeply divided about whether  Kiswahili and English should be the medium of teaching in public schools.

The issue surfaced  when representatives of five political parties faced off in a live televised debate on party policies.

Reacting to the medium of instruction in public schools, Dr Kessy, who is also a member of the East Africa Legislative Assembly (Eala), said Ukawa supported the use of Kiswahili.

“We all know that language is a national treasure. Disrespecting your own language amounts to belittling yourself. Our Founding Fathers had fronted Kiswahili as one of our unifying factors. It will be strange if we will decided to reject that truth today,” she said.

Dr Kessy noted, however, that while Kiswahili will be used as the official medium of teaching, other languages such as English and French will be taught like other subjects.

For his part, Mr Mwigamba noted that ACT-Wazalendo policy has not set a specific language for teaching in public schools.

He said what the party plans to do was to adopt a bilingual system where both languages would be taught effectively.

“After pupils and students have mastered both languages, it will be upon Tanzanians to decide which language should be used as the official medium of training in public schools,” he said. Mr Samuel told the audience that the country has ended up in this dilemmatic situation because the CCM government had ascribed to globalisation without any plans of its own.