Worry as 2,000 Kiswahili teachers remain jobless

Kiswahili teachers have remained unemployed despite the government’s decision to integrate the teaching and learning of the language into lower secondary schools’ curriculum.

According to the statistics from the Kiswahili Language Teachers Association (CHAKITAU), of the 2,401 registered members in the association, 2,056 teachers are unemployed.

This means that only 345 Kiswahili teachers are employed countrywide by the government.

Of the 345 teachers on the government payroll, 57 are diploma holders, 23 are Master’s degree holders,19 are Kiswahili PhD holders and the rest are bachelor’s degree holders. One PhD holder is not employed.  

CHAKITAU stands for Chama Cha Kiswali Cha Taifa Cha Uganda, a Kiswahili word meaning National Kiswahili Association of Uganda.

Dr Muhammad Kiggundu, the head of the Department of Languages at Makerere University, said since Kiswahili was introduced at the institution, they have so far produced 40 percent of all Kiswahili teachers in Uganda.

Dr Kiggundu said of these 40 percent, only 10 percent were able to get government jobs as the other 30 percent remained idle or employed by private schools and were receiving low pay.

“We appeal to the government to absorb these teachers and they are distributed to different schools across the country,’’ Dr Kiggundu said at the weekend during a two-day conference for Kiswahili students.

Students from different Kiswahili teaching universities met and discussed how to develop the language and pave the way for the future.

Dr Boaz Mutungi, the vice president of the CHAKITAU,  asked the government to recruit the available teachers such that Kiswahili is widely taught. 

“We cannot look at science only being promoted but we have to have a language that can simplify science to our people,” he said.

CHAKITU wants the government to develop a policy in different institutions to start training Swahili language.

“If we do that, we will not be left out in the East African Community. Uganda is still lagging in Kiswahili and employment and other opportunities have been taken over by other countries.”

Dr Levi Masereka Kahaika, a lecturer at Makerere, called upon the government to introduce Kiswahili in primary to ease teaching.

“It has been researched that if a child is introduced to a language when he/she is still very young, they will speak it fluently compared to the person introduced to a language when he or she is old,” Dr Masereka said.

He added that a child is capable of learning six languages.  “At the regional level, we are talking about free movement, so we need to start now and everyone learns Kiswahili since it unites the East African Community.’’

In July 2022, Cabinet approved the implementation of the 21st East African Community Summit directive in Uganda to adopt Kiswahili as the official language.

The Cabinet also approved compulsory teaching of the language in primary and secondary schools. The directive has since worked well in secondary as Kiswahili is now compulsory for students in senior One and Senior Two, but the government is yet to introduce the same in the primary level.

In October 2022, Cabinet introduced a plan to have ministers learn Kiswahili for at least an hour every week as one of the steps to fully achieve the East African integration. But it looks like the initiative hit a snag, with no positive results.

About Kiswahili
Kiswahili, mainly spoken in the East African region, has earned its place of pride as one of the world’s top 10 most spoken languages and Africa’s most widely used native language.

It enjoys official status in Kenya and Tanzania and is also widely spoken in parts of DR Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.