The challenges experienced by temeke district community secondary school students who attended primary schools which used Kiswahili as a medium of instruction

This study investigated the challenges posed by using English as the language of instruction for learners who were instructed in Kiswahili at primary school in Tanzania’s community secondary schools. In particular, the study had four specific objectives: (1) Finding out the learners’ ability to express ideas, interpret instructions and questions; (2) To investigate teachers’ knowledge on competency-based teaching by English language as LOI; (3) To assess teachers’ competency in language of instruction and (4) to explore the views of the public school parents and learners about the current Language of Instruction (LOI). The study employed mixed methodology approach using case study design in Temeke Municipality in Dar es Salaam region. It had a sample of 68 respondents, categorized into parents, academic teachers, subject teachers and students who were purposively sampled and through stratified random sampling procedures. Questionnaires, interviews, documentary review and classroom observation search were applied for data collection. For betterment of the study, translation was made especially in questionnaires and respondent’s quotation. Data were subjected to content analysis qualitatively and quantitatively. The study established that most English language teachers not only were not competent enough to teach primary and secondary school learners but also were been constrained by unavailability of learning facilities. Understanding and implementation of the concept competent based language learning approach were poorly; and also the study revealed that unawareness of most vocabularies, grammatical problems, lack of enough vocabularies, ambiguity in instruction/ questions and inadequate competence in the language use as the language of instruction were among of the problems that hinder students’ ability to express themselves/ideas and failing to interpret questions and instructions. Basing on these findings, the study recommends that English language should still being use of as the language of instruction. The government funds allocation process should consider English language in capacity building as separate item. The government should put more emphasis on provisional of sufficient and necessary learning materials. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training should establish “English language committees” at regional, district and schools levels for effective follow up of teaching and learning of English.