Standard 7 results reopens the language debate
Dar es Salaam. The controversy about the language of teaching in the nation’s educational institutions has been further fuelled by the English Language’s poor performance in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) 2022.
Tanzania’s education system has been under scrutiny due to a number of challenges, with the confusion over the language of instruction from primary to university level taking toll.
This issue, which needs to be addressed in policy, has been the subject of debate for decades without ever reaching an agreement as students and teachers continue to be overwhelmed by the barriers to learning and teaching. The use of Kiswahili is a policy requirement where the declaration No. 3.2.19 of the Education and Training Policy of 2014 gives the language a nod.
It says: “The Kiswahili language will be used for teaching and learning at all levels of education and training and the government will put in place mechanisms to enable the use of this language to be sustainable and effective in providing productive education and training…”
However, Kiswahili has been used as a language of instruction at the primary school level with the argument being to make students understand better and more easily. When it comes to secondary school, however, it switches to English, a language of instruction used mainly up to university level.
In this regard, poor performance in the subject by students who head to secondary school where the English language will be used for instruction left the concerned group’s tongues wagging yesterday. The education stakeholders said secondary schools would get a big burden due to massive failure of students in the subject, which will be mainly used in teaching. This, they say, will make students gain inadequate knowledge through memorisation and not with the aim of understanding. According to the results announced by the acting executive secretary of the National Examinations Council (Necta), Mr Athuman Amasi, it shows that 912,708 candidates passed the grade while another 39,086 got grade E, equivalent to 2.90 percent.
“In the English language, a total of 59,990 candidates have obtained grade A, 56,569 candidates have obtained grade B and 279,580 candidates have obtained grade C,” he said.
Speaking on the matter, Dr Luka Mkonongwa, a lecturer at the Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), said the performance witnessed in the English Language showed how much secondary schools will have a heavy burden that may contribute to producing half-baked graduates.
“We cannot not expect a person who got a grade D in English to go to secondary school and do miracles, the few who will fall into the hands of talented teachers may be better but many will get unsatisfactory results,” he told The Citizen.
He suggested improving the teaching of the language so that at least when the student finishes primary education, he will be able to communicate with his teacher in English.
Dr Omary Mohammed of the State University of Zanzibar said the poor performance in the subject may be due to the lack of sufficient and competent teachers in the subject.
But noted that the government needs to speed up decisions on the main language of instruction to curb the current confusion.
He also said that even the existing teachers, especially those who studied for a diploma in teaching, were trained in the Kiswahili language when they were in college.
“But I think the time has come for the authorities to think about how to stop this confusion, let’s look at what these results mean for the nation,” he noted.
