The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Government has called for the deployment of teachers in areas where they are familiar with the local indigenous language as a means of improving pass rates at Grade Seven.
This has been necessitated by the dismal performance of students in the 2020 Grade Seven examinations. The 2020 national pass rate dropped by 9,79 percent to stand at 37,11 percent. There have been calls for students who did not perform well to re-write examinations.
Language experts have however, said that teaching in indigenous languages must be extended to higher learning so as to tap into the full potential of students and not limit it to Early Childhood Development (ECD).
Dr Eventhough Ndlovu, a senior lecturer in the Department of Languages Literature and Culture at the University of Zimbabwe said it was now a global trend and best practice to teach in local languages known to learners.
“It is actually the best practice and a global trend that learners must be taught in their mother tongue right from Early Childhood Development (ECD). Unesco has actually made a recommendation that this must be extended beyond ECD level because research has shown that learners learn better when taught using their mother tongue.
So, to quickly drop the mother tongue at Grade Three and then get into the second language exclusively is a disadvantage because it constitutes what is called quick exit transitional bilingual programmes which have been condemned the world over,” he said.
He added; “If we confine mother tongue education to ECD, we will promote what are called submersion programmes, yet we should be promoting immersion programmes where the learner is supported in the mother tongue throughout. The best recommended practice is to employ mother tongue-based multilingual education which is the most globally acceptable practice.”
Dr Ndlovu said there was lack of innovation by students in the country because of language use.
“The reason why most of our students are not that innovative and able to think critically is because we are trying to tap into their creative minds using a language that they do not speak and understand well,” he said.
In terms of teacher deployment, he said a teacher must be sent to a community where they have expertise in the language used in the school. He said this is something that the ministry is correcting, and they must also intensify teacher training in all the officially recognised languages, complemented by universities as well.
Last week, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Ambassador Cain Mathema approved 600 lateral transfers to Harare and Bulawayo Metropolitan provinces. The Government also greenlighted the recruitment of 3 000 teachers, among them specialist teachers in indigenous languages of Shangani, Tonga, Venda and Nambya as it moves to reaffirm its position on the teaching of indigenous languages.
Amb Mathema said it was unacceptable for teachers with no knowledge of local languages to teach in those schools whose languages they have little or no knowledge of as it was ineffective as early Grades needed explanations in their mother tongue.
“As for languages, I couldn’t agree more with the idea that if one is in Binga, they should be able to speak the local language, especially for ECD. If you are in Matabeleland, IsiNdebele or even in Chipinge, children speak Ndau that side, so, you cannot send a person who cannot speak Ndau there to go and teach ECD children,” he said in his ministerial speech last week.
Board member for the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) an Africa-wide continental language organisation and Executive Director Language Institute, Professor Wiseman Magwa from Midlands State University said recruitment of vernacular teachers by Government was of paramount importance in the development of children and their general understanding. He said it was a constitutional obligation to recruit vernacular language teachers to teach different local languages in schools.
“This is a positive development that the Government has now deployed teachers to teach children in their mother tongue. There is need for natural speakers in different languages to teach language subjects in those areas where they are spoken. It has been proven that education is at its best when taught in the mother tongue. Teachers must go where they are able to function,” he said.
Prof Magwa said universities and colleges were complementing Government efforts in introducing teachers’ training programmes in local languages.
“It was absurd that we had teachers who speak a different language teaching in areas where another language was spoken. We have 16 local languages recognised by the Constitution. At Midlands State University there are special programmes to accommodate teachers of local languages. The university has been enrolling speakers of these marginalised languages to become teachers. We are glad that the programme is coming to fruition,” he said.
The church has also registered its disappointment over the poor Grade Seven results saying issues of hunger, teachers and infrastructure need to be addressed.
“Those poor results from Matabeleland are actually an indication of a deeper problem that we have within our education system. First the issues of Covid-19 last year, has had an impact especially for communities that cannot afford to do online learning which affected the entire country,” said Reverend Useni Sibanda the Executive Director for Zimbabwe Christian Alliance.
He said the Matabeleland region also had poor infrastructure with few schools within the reach of students.
“In Matabeleland we continue to have very poor school infrastructure, most children have to walk very long distances to get to primary schools, that is a huge problem we have,” he said
Rev Sibanda said the availability of teachers themselves in some schools had also been a problem, saying most teachers have not been available because of various frustrations, strikes and also the intake of teachers which he said was still not meeting the requirements for the region.
“Another critical issue is that Matabeleland is one of the poorest in terms of food supply, what it means is that a lot of these children come from homes where they lack enough food and they depend on schools feeding programmes that are not very consistent,” he said. @NyembeziMu
