Stop punishing pupils over vernacular, Buganda minister warns teachers

Dr Twaha Kawaase addressing the Muslim teachers’ convention in Kampala last Saturday. Photo by Farahani Mukisa

KAMPALA. The Buganda Kingdom education minister, Dr Twaha Kawaase, has cautioned teachers against punishing students for speaking vernacular [Luganda] at schools.
“We would like to caution all teachers who punish students for speaking Luganda at schools to stop,” Dr Kawaase said. “We studied Luganda during our days at school, aren’t we better products compared to students produced nowadays?” he questioned.
Addressing the 26th Uganda Muslim Teacher’s Association (UMTA) convention last Saturday, Mr Kawaase said Luganda as a subject taught in classes, should be like any other medium of interaction among students at school.
Government recently introduced a new thematic curriculum policy dictating that during the first three years of primary education, pupils must be taught using their mother tongue as the medium of instruction, with English taught as a separate subject, before switching to English as a medium of instruction in year four.
With more than 50 ethnic groups in Uganda, each with its own dialect, the policy was rooted in the idea that children pick up foreign languages more easily if first grounded in their mother tongue. Prior to the policy change, English was the official language of instruction in all school years.
Mr Kawaase said punishing a student for speaking Luganda is illegal given that the Constitution of Uganda has never criminalised vernacular.
“Such schools’ policies banning students from speaking a language they are taught in class, we won’t tolerate them,” he warned. “Besides, in actual sense these languages help students to comprehend subjects more than in foreign languages,” he argued.
Hajj Bruhane Mugerwa, the Kawempe Muslim Secondary School head teacher and the chairperson UMTA National Executive Council, urged schools to promote vocational studies as one way to promote hands-on-skills to help curb the high unemployment in the country.
The minister also advised teachers to promote quality effective and affordable education to avert “issues of a Primary Seven teacher failing a Primary Two exam.”
The convention brought together Muslim teachers from across the country.