power of English language on pass rate enormous

Morris Mtisi
IT IS a colonial language perpetrating colonial mentality. It is not our mother tongue and cannot take precedence over our vernacular languages. It adulterates Afro-centric ideas and pushes cultural beliefs and values to the back burner. It is not a religion.

Let’s stop worshipping it!

Yet everything we say it is, it is not. And everything we say it is not, it is. Why? Because as in other African states, English is Zimbabwe’s lingua-franca, the official language of all business including the business of education and examinations. The Zimbabwean basic education certificate, O level, is not complete without a C pass or better in English Language.

What this points to is one simple truth: Zimbabwe is no more a colony and it will never be a colony — lest some people forget! But its education system is still basically colonial.

Policymakers and politicians may put up huge intellectual and academic arguments about whether the state of the education system is wrong or right, whether it places the nation on a vintage point or not. It is clearly not the purpose of this discourse to engage in that argument.

The point is, as things are, as it is as we speak, English Language is a ‘‘religion’’ worldwide — including Zimbabwe. Whether we like that religion or not, is clearly another issue.

It also means English Language has a hugely undeniable bearing on our education including the pass rate which is a national worry and concern at the moment.

Until we totally decolonise the system of education and make it purely indigenous in every aspect and sense, translate all textbooks, History, Mathematics, Science, Geography, into indigenous languages and decree or declare that teachers teach in vernacular languages, examinations set and answered in the same, we cannot afford to allow naivety to reign over reason.

English Language both directly and indirectly determines the pass rate. Whether we like it that way or not! When students read all these books written in English Language throughout their study years, how easily do they understand their contents? During examinations, how easily or precisely do they understand the language of the questions? And finally, how clearly or sensibly do they communicate with the marker?

We all mourn about the death of a reading culture in Zimbabwe. How do youngsters develop an interest in reading what they can hardly understand?

What is the import of this input?

Teach students to appreciate the priceless value of English Language, to study it well enough to make it their tool of achievement, to make it their major weapon in winning the battle against ignorance and poverty.

Train special English Language teachers to replace the vintage ones one by one exiting the classroom into retirement. And then quickly forget that everyone who can say ‘is’ and ‘was’ can teach English Language to make students proficient speakers and writers.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary education must moot a think-tank which breathes new life into the system, technocrats who can steer the ship off the shore into the deep seas by introducing competent lead subject teachers, subject or teacher advisors; thinkers who can differentiate between issues and tissues.

Consultancy is the way to go. Subject inspectors cannot overcome this mammoth talk alone.

There is a crisis here which needs urgent attention: While it is clear that the learner needs PLAP, the teacher, too, needs to be thoroughly PLAPPED. Perhaps to ensure acceptability of the idea, it is necessary to play around words and call it in-service training, reorientation or strategic staff-development, especially in the area of English Language-teaching and learning.

Those with ears to hear, hear.