Language policy in Tanzanian primary schools with emphasis on implementation

The thesis is study if new language policy on Swahili in Tanzanian primary school, with a special emphasis on whether its implementation affects the learning and teaching of the English language. In order to determine any effects of the policy on the English Language, area of investigations which seemed relevant to study were defined. These were people’s attitude towards languages, people’s awareness of and reactions to the new policy and how various sectors (including the government) participated in the implementation of the policy, as well as the quality of implementation. For this purpose, the populations chosen for survey were school children, student teachers, comities and official or semi-official bodies. The reason for such an approach is that, given any new policy, if people are aware of the policy to begin with if they favour it and implement it accordingly, the chances are that any counter-factor would not receive the same attention and might suffer from considerable neglect. This study is based on the hypothesis that, if the new policy on Swahili was well received ij terms of awareness and implementation, English, would relative to Swahili, receive less interest and be less well taught in schools and consequently would suffer from neglecting. The introduction specifies the method by which the hypothesis was tested and describes the procedures of questionnaire, interviews, and rated observations. Chapter one gives a historical background to the problem of language in education in Tanzania, stating that Swahili, which had a written script dating as far back as the 10th century, was not given its rightful chance as a medium of instruction in schools during colonial times. This avoidance of Swahili was due to fears of its unifying power among tribes in the country which could have resulted in political unity, as well as to the European tendency to attribute inferiority to African languages. The exception of the missionaries’ use of tribal language use out of fear of losing African catechists to the city, urban life being another factor in possible wider integrations among tribes. Thus, with political independence, it became feasible to introduce the new policy on language to meet new educational demands for Tanzanian children, a step leading to a more permanent educational policy on language. Chapter two is a presentation of the data collected from Iringa, Dar es salaam, and Morogoro regions. The regions were selected because of their accessibility to the investigator. It is felt that any similarly regions studied would have yielded much the same quantitative results. The general conclusion drawn from teachers’ students’, pupils’, and community members’ responses and from rated observations contradicts the hypothesis that the new language policy is adversely affecting the teaching of the English language. The new policy on language has met problems at implementation level due to prevailing conscious attitude of both policy maker and implementers, scarcity of good teaching materials, and lack of guidance, coordination and incentives. A strong inference is made that there are problems in the educational system which affect not only language teaching and learning but also learning and teaching of other subjects. These are partly connected with misinterpretations of the educational policy. In conclusion, the last chapter relates the question of language to the total question of education, showing that language is very important to the cognitive and emotional development of the child. It involves the total mental capacity of the child and should therefore be taken into account in the total structure of education. This central importance of language means that it must be carefully and systematically taught. A case for the importance of English instruction is also argued in this chapter. Suggestions are made as to what could be done in order to provide better implementation. These suggestions include description of on-going project at Ife in Nigeria as one grade of primary school teachers; the change of course content; provision of teaching materials and coordination of programs. These should be seen as part of major structural changes which are necessary in order to implement effectively language policy inherent in education for self-reliance.