Introducing Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education in Uganda:

Motivations and Limitations

Annette Islei and Muhumuza Moses, School of Education, MMU

Plurilingualism and Pluriculturalism Conference, SOAS,19-20th Feb 2010

Sub-Saharan Africa > Uganda

Millennium Development Goals: not ‘one size fits all’

Donors and Academic ResearchUganda Government

curriculum

resources- teachers and training

- languages and orthography- written materials and publishing

30 million > 80% rural > 65 peoples > 46 languages

Recommended structure for ‘multilingual’ education

‘Late exit’ or additive bilingualism models :• at least 6 years instruction through MT

or a familiar language • 8 years if resources are poor• accompanied by specialist teaching of English

‘Early exit’ models:• Instruction through MT or familiar language P1– P3 or P4• Benefits diminish by P5

ADEA (2006) ) Optimizing Learning and Education in Africa – the Language Factor. A Stock-taking Research on Mother Tongue and Bilingual Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Proposals: benefits of education through a familiar language

1. Child learning: • ensure competence in a language• improve educational performance overall

2. develop African languages, knowledge, culture3. reduce the urban / rural and gender divides 4. enable participation in socio-economic

development; create new businesses5. increase political participation and improve

social cohesion and unity

2004 Ugandan ESSP:Education Sector Strategic Plan

3.1.2 Objective 2: Students achieving education goals

Acknowledged the research:

“it is now incontrovertible that learners can master literacy in a second language (English) more readily if they learn first to read and write in their mother tongue”

Listed the “barriers to success”– producing written materials– persuading parents– resolving political problems

surrounding languages of instruction

Mother-tongue based multilingual education in Uganda

1997: UPE > high enrolment > lower results

2007: Introduction of Thematic CurriculumPrimary 1 – Primary 3• themes delivered through a local language• continuous assessment

2010: P4 transition to English as LoI• P5 Local Languages cease; Kiswahili begins as subject• P7 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) in English

Choice of which local language according to pupil lang uages • Mixed intake (urban schools; private schools; boarding schools) • English may be the local language

English: the strangler fig

The view from the village

employmentfurther education

English PLE

English- economic value

- bilingual education?- learn a language you know?

- symbolic value of own mother tongue80% of Ugandans live in rural areas

Fort Portal ‘mainstreet’

‘Runyakitara’ cluster: Runyoro-Rutooro Runyankole-Rukiga

• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=UG&seq=10

Uganda: an uneasy fit

African Donors Educ. Business Gov’nt NationalAspirations and System Unity

Research Fearlanguageindustries

PEAP?education PLE? quality ? PEAPin familiarlanguage PLE

desires? democratization?African languages fears of ‘multilingualism’?

Sharing objectives

1. Creating dialogue for developing a common aim:• We need to understand people’s perceptions and

assumptions at all levels of societyor• policies and programmes will not have the intended

effect and we will not know why (Graham, 2009)

2. Understanding the roles languages play in society:The need for “a national development plan in which reform of education and economic development planning [are] integrated” (Alexander, 2009: 62)

Education Research and Propagation

• Eddie Williams: “over-reliance on English ... has been a barrier, rather than a bridge, to development” (2006:2)

• ADEA (2006), Optimizing Learning and Education in Africa – the Language Factor. A Stock-taking Research on Mother Tongue and Bilingual Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Benson, C. (200....) “Parents perceptions of Bilingual Schooling in Developing Countries”

• Pinnock, H. (2009) Language and education: the missing link. How the language used in schools threatens the achievement of Education For All[Sponsored by Save the Children and CfBT]

• SIL International (producers of Ethnologue) established Multilingual Education Network Forum (July, 2009) in Uganda (extension from Kenya)

Hourglass: enough teachers competent in Local Languages?

Study + Teaching of LLsDegree in Education University In-service up-grading

? ? ‘A’ level = + 2 years National ‘O’ level = UCE ? ? Teachers + 4 years PrimaryCollege Teachers

PLE CollegeP5-7 = no LL

P5 = Kiswahili begins ??

P4 = transition to English LoI

NGOs LLs P1- P3 = Thematic CurriculumGovernment UPE schools

Adult Basic Literacy

Government Perceptions:1992 Government White Paper on Education

Section 31: multilingualism: “one of the most fundamental causes of social conflicts and economic backwardness in Uganda”

BUTSection 32: proposal:

“African languages should be developed .... as much as possible ... as the media of instruction, for pedagogic and cultural reasons”

‘status quo maintenance syndrome’

Section 33: HOWEVER -Government has noted ... in the growing urban centres where most of the good schools are located, children learn quickly and enthusiastically

- when they are taught in English,- even if they learn it for the first time in school s

Section 34: proposal:– Mother tongue as LoI up to P4 – English as subject from P1 and LoI from P5– 5 Ugandan area languages examinable at PLE

DESPITE this proposal, English remained .........

An Introduction: the spokesperson presents gifts and asks for acceptance

Pluriculturalism: the global and the local

Simultaneous diachronic pluriculturalism!traditional rural culture

missionary colonialculture modern African

western diaspora culture popular

culture global

Synchronic pluriculturalism: 65 different peoples

List of recipients and gifts in English and Rutooro

Uwezo!

“In our eagerness to assist countries to achieve the EFA and MDG goals, the overriding conclusion ... is that we need to be wary of offering ‘solutions’ without ensuring that we are enabling countries to carry out those local investigations and contextualizations which are necessary to give meaning to the use of evidence ...”

(Abby Riddell, 2008)

Summary of Issues in UgandaCompromises in structure:

– Small number of languages available for use as Language of Instruction (LoI)– Choice of language by a school – English in urban, Ugandan LL in rural schools– Length of use of Local Languages (early-exit strategies the norm in Africa)

Problems of delivery:– Teacher competence in the local language and appropriate teaching methods– In-service teacher training (methodology and content) – availability of teaching-learning resources – instructional and general reading– Lack of parallel expertise in teaching English

Problems of understanding and attitudes:– 150 years of English as the language of power, education and access to a salary– change of rhetoric from one national language as the means to development to

multilingualism as a national resource has come abruptly from above– terminology: ‘multilingualism’ (connotations) rather than individual ‘bi- or trilingual education’

Spoken and unspoken concerns:– Educational and economic value of local languages– Effects on social mobility and communication; social cohesion and unity– Implications of the change to the social, economic and political structures

Uganda

www.africa-adventure.com/images/uganda_map.jpg