Published on 16/08/2024
The National Curriculum Development Centre urged the Ugandan Government to deploy 68,000 trained Kiswahili teachers who are currently idle.
The call for action comes as Kiswahili teaching remains underutilized in primary and secondary schools. This move could enhance language education and better utilize the skilled educators waiting for deployment.
Perpetua Arinaitwe, the Senior Curriculum Specialist in Charge of Kiswahili at NCDC, made the appeal on August 14, 2024, while appearing before Parliament’s Committee of Gender, Labour, and Social Development to present the Centre’s views on the Uganda National Kiswahili Council Bill 2023.
Arinaitwe informed the committee that the first group of Grade 3 teachers with Kiswahili as a teaching subject graduated in 2014. Since then, an estimated 68,000 Kiswahili teachers have completed their training but have never practiced their skills due to the absence of deployment opportunities.
She stressed the urgency of deploying these teachers, stating, “We have over 68,000 teachers who have finished PTC training in Kiswahili and have never practiced in schools. We urge the government to deploy these teachers and ensure Kiswahili is implemented in primary schools to tap into this valuable resource.”
The NCDC warned that the government risks incurring additional costs for retraining these teachers if the language is fully rolled out in the future without immediate deployment. Arinaitwe emphasized, “Language is a practice, and when it is not used, it is forgotten. These teachers have been out in the field without using Kiswahili, and they may need refresher courses when the language is eventually implemented.”
She also highlighted the NCDC’s efforts in revising the primary school Kiswahili curriculum in 2001, which planned for Kiswahili instruction from Primary 4 to Primary 7. However, despite these efforts, Kiswahili has not been widely adopted in schools, with some secondary schools still not taking it seriously as a compulsory subject.
Arinaitwe criticized the Ministry of Education for wasting resources by procuring 413,456 Kiswahili textbooks for Primary 5 to 7 in 2014, even though the subject had not been formally rolled out in these schools. She noted, “This is a clear case of wastage. These materials were distributed to schools, but Kiswahili hasn’t been formally introduced, and we are still facing challenges with low textbook-to-learner ratios.”
The NCDC welcomed the Uganda National Kiswahili Council Bill 2023, viewing it as crucial to fulfilling Parliament’s constitutional obligation to establish Kiswahili as Uganda’s second national language. Arinaitwe referred to Article 62 of the Constitution, which mandates Kiswahili as the second official language and urged Parliament to take this responsibility seriously.
The Centre also outlined strategies for increasing Kiswahili use in Uganda, particularly through the education sector. These include recruiting Kiswahili teachers, providing instructional materials, promoting continuous professional development, supporting learner activities, and digitizing instructional content.
