By KT Reporter
The National Curriculum Development Centre’s initiative to adopt the Karamojong language in lower primary schools has hit a snag due to a lack of native teachers.
On Wednesday, the team from the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) met with educationists, local leaders, civil society organisations and religious leaders across the Karamoja sub-region, in Moroto district, to validate their assessment report that was conducted countrywide on the familiar language to be adopted in lower primary schools. This study covered 31 districts from the different regions of the country.
At a national level, the findings showed that 22 languages can be adopted as a medium of instruction in the lower primary classes, while the Karamoja sub-region had Karamojong as a familiar language to be adopted.
However, the move in the Karamoja sub-region has sparked concerns about how to cater for the districts such as Amudat, Abim and Karenga, which speak different languages and the challenge of having teachers who are non-natives to instruct in the local language.
Dada Rose Romano, the Karenga District Education Officer, said that although the Karamojong language is more central and so familiar, there are other languages also in the region that need to be taken care of.
Romano noted that his district has over four tribes, which include the Madi, Okuti, Nyangea, and a section of Karamojong speakers. He said that they are now trying to develop the study materials and translate them into different languages to be used within the district.
Romano said that the concept of instructing a child in their mother language should be taken seriously because they conceptualise what is being taught.
However, Romano raised concerns over the lack of human resources to help in the implementation of the local language policy in the lower primary. He observed that the entire region sources teachers from the neighbouring districts that are non-Karamojong, yet the thematic curriculum requires a teacher to teach in the local language.
Emmanuel Linga, the Amudat District Education Officer, noted that the Karamojong language can only be used in the six districts, exclusive of Amudat, Karenga and Abim districts.
Linga observed that in the Amudat district, they speak the Pokot language, which is a Kalenjin dialect that has nothing to do with Karamoja linguistically.
He said that although the government is considering selecting familiar languages to teach in the different sub-regions, they must also bear in mind that there is a lot of diversity in Karamoja, especially in the districts of Abim and Amudat.
Linga urged the government to allow them to continue instructing learners in their own local language, and they are already piloting in six primary schools. He said that they have already developed the study materials in the Pokot language with guidance from the National Curriculum Development Centre, and the schools are doing exceptionally well.
Rev Canon Jane Chorey, the chairperson of the Pokot Language Board in Amudat district, said that they developed the study materials in the Pokot language for P1, P2 and P3, but unfortunately, they lacked the native teachers to use them for instructing the learners.
Chorey said that most of their teachers are hired from the neighbouring districts in the Sebei sub-region, who also speak a similar language. She added that they have also selected some senior four drop-out students from the native to train as teachers to help in delivering the Pokot materials to the learners.
Bogere Ssezi, a research officer at the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), noted that validation has shown that the districts of Amudat, Abim and Karenga have got totally different language from the other six districts, and they are now considering developing materials for all the present languages.
Despite the language readiness, Ssezi expressed his fears about the availability of teachers to affect the use of the languages as a medium of instruction. He said that there is a need to develop regional interventions, such as affirmative action, to be taken to allow the region to develop their own teachers.
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