adminThe stakeholders say vernacular languages lay a poor foundation for the prospective learners and its effects are reflected in the poor results. They now want the subjects scrapped.
James Mwangi, a Murang’a university students’ representative, says the teaching at the lower classes forms the basis of the education to the young children as they tend to adopt and stick to what they learn from the first day in class.
He says overusing the vernacular language lowers the capacity of the pupils to read and write.
“It is not a surprise to find a class five pupil who does know how to read and write well in English since they are taught in vernacular languages, I think it’s high time the government scrapped these languages from school curriculums,” says Mwangi.
Mwangi says though this has been going on for years, it is the high time to seal all the loopholes in the sector that have led to the deteriorating performance, especially in Murang’a.
On his part, George Wachira, district education officer Murang’a South, says the teachers deployed at the Early Childhood Development (ECD) and lower classes are aged and use of mother tongue appears to be the best option for them.
He says the government should consider deploying youthful teachers who have attained a diploma in ECD or P1 as they are vibrant and they have better skills.
“Most of the teachers who teach in lower classes are not graduates, hardly will you find a graduate there which makes it hard to eliminate the vernacular language since this is the most comfortable language for them,” says Wachira.
Wachira told Xinhua his office is, however, laying up a strategy on eliminating use of vernacular language in schools and especially in rural areas where it is rampant.
He says it affects the overall performance of pupils, citing slow learners whom he says find it hard to adopt use of Kiswahili and English when they cross over to the upper primary.
“Some of the teachers use Kikuyu in their lessons even in class five and six as they try to assist the slow learners which should not be the case,” he says.
He, however, says this is a gradual process which will take a long period of time.
The officer says if vernacular use is totally eliminated, this will greatly help public schools in competing with private institutions where vernacular is unheard of.
“I believe there are other factors which could be contributing to the poor performance but the use of mother tongue seems to be the biggest challenge,” he insists.
He also advised teachers to consider introducing practical subjects, saying this will also enhance children’s learning skills.
However, for Benson Kiritu, a schoolhead, mother tongue is not to blame for poor examination performance in schools. He says success and good grades require an extra effort from teachers to use better teaching strategies that will enhance pupils understanding.
He argues that for pupils to comprehend other languages, they must also know their mother tongue thus making the transition easier.
“Use of vernacular should not be singled out as the major drawback but it is important to establish whether the teachers are really doing their work or not,” he adds.
Murang’a education stakeholders have, however, resolved to form a special task force comprising professionals, education officers and students, whose mandate will be to investigate issues affecting the performance in the area.
The committee will then give recommendations out of their findings, which the schools can adopt to help improve their results.
Provincial director of education Patrick Nyangosia says the first step in reversing the situation would be changing the negative attitude towards education and called upon the community to be part of the process.
“We have to come up with unique strategies to gear up the education standards, if all of us are committed, we will be able to reverse the trend,” says Nyangosia.
He proposed an annual education day be set aside where stakeholders will discuss schools performance, give teachers a chance to exchange idea and awarding of the best performing schools as well as individuals.
Nyangosia, however, emphasized on the importance of parents’ engagement in their children education, noting that this largely affects the performance. — AP
Online Reporter