No shortage of Kiswahili teachers
The recent rollout of new curriculum for lower secondary education by National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) has created mixed reactions among Ugandans. A curriculum is, in most cases, tailored on the current needs of a country. In other words, the current needs, therefore, befit curriculum review.
In this regard, there is need to embrace government’s effort and zeal for rolling out the new curriculum that is long overdue. No curriculum can be designed by any ordinary person. It is always drawn by education experts, who expansively make benchmarks for efficacy.
It is dispiriting to see Members of Parliament (MPs) halting the implementation of the curriculum.
It is unfortunate that some MPs live in denial and are knowledge deficit on Kiswahili progress in Uganda. For example, it is on record that all government schools in western Uganda have two Kiswahili teachers on government payroll and it’s compulsory in lowers secondary.
Government universities such as Makerere, Kyambogo and Kabale, have been training Kiswahili teachers for many years. These teachers have been augmented by private universities as such as Bishop Stuart and Islamic University in Uganda, among others, graduating about 400 Kiswahili teachers every year.
To attest to this was an advert that was done by Education Service Commission in 2018, which overwhelmed government cynics and naysayers who believed in few Kiswahili teachers in Uganda. Ten slots allotted to Kiswahili attracted 350 teachers. This is indicative of enormous availability of Kiswahili.
In this regard, it’s outrageous to say that Kiswahili teachers are few to make it compulsory.
The census of teachers of Kiswahili carried out last month shows that more than 1,500 teachers, a few of whom are employed are by government.
Kiswahili being the lingua franca in the East African region, I appreciate the government for implementing the White Paper recommendations made in 1987 by Prof Senteza Kajubi amid dissidents who have worked to see this futile.
