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OSF Backs Calls for Withdrawal of New Education Policy
Open Society Foundation (OSF) has supported calls for government to withdraw the newly introduced policy that subjects pupils from Grades one to four to be learning in their local native languages.
Executive Director Sunday Chanda says the policy is taking the country into the past.
Mr. Chanda says with such a policy in place government is also not taking children into the desired future where they are expected to compete with other international citizens as equals.
The OSF Executive Director has observed that Zambia’s education system already has vernacular languages as part of the subjects to be learnt and that it is will be extreme for the Minister of Education to allegedly wasting taxpayers’ money on such a policy.
He says this is because even some teachers have been reported as not being ready for the implementation of the new policy.
He notes that to this effect government should be advised to reverse the policy and consider engaging in wider consultations.
Posted by Editor (online)
on January 28, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS.
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Jao
January 28, 2014 at 3:31 pm
Problems with most Zambians they think speaking your native language is stone age.Such people they perceive someone who has faied to express well in English is dull. Please allow the policy to start first therefore check if it is taking the nation to the past.The policy is not coming to replace English.
Maiko
January 28, 2014 at 3:49 pm
@Jao,
Just shut the hell up if you do not know what you are talking about. Do you know how many native languages we have in Zambia?? Do you know that the so called 7 common languages are foreign to the remaining(73-7) or 66 languages?
cman
January 28, 2014 at 4:11 pm
whats so special about English? firstly it was forced on us by colonial govt.lets embrace our own.look at Swaziland,…..
Atate ake Khalidwe
January 28, 2014 at 5:14 pm
All the people in Swaziland belong to one ethnic grouping-the ma-Swati. They can afford to speak one language as all are able to. Not so with Zambia. We have 73 ethnic groupings. Hence we need English as a unifying language. That’s what’s special about English!
cman
January 29, 2014 at 12:49 pm
73 ethnic groupings it maybe.but apart from English what languages do we commonly speak lets say at bars? every locality has a dominant dialect.even in china there are a number of dialects
666
January 28, 2014 at 4:36 pm
chikala chobe
cman
January 28, 2014 at 4:49 pm
wembwa.musula obe.you comment was in what dialect?
tutu
January 29, 2014 at 10:44 am
@666 iwe chikala kanshi umfwa shani ukutukana insele nokulanda ifyabupuba lyonse lyonse? abanobe balelanda ifyabuyantanshi iwe ulebosa ifyamumanshinsha!!!waba ifimatole mukanwa chikala chobe…
barotse diaspora
January 28, 2014 at 4:40 pm
Suprising,where is the teachers of venecular going to come from? .great number of local teachers are in diaspora and the system is currently abroagated.its a wasted skills for failures on the scene of peoples demand
2016
January 28, 2014 at 5:20 pm
This is a very backward policy! The govt should learn to consult. People transfer from one place to the other and they expect the be changing the language all the time. English is not tribal so lets use it.
ak75
January 29, 2014 at 10:30 am
consulting who? be proud of your language . do you think our language should extinct for English -
ChiKA
January 28, 2014 at 6:43 pm
If they want to use local language as a means of communication, let them start with cabinet; they present the budget in Njanja, make press conferences in Bemba. What I’m trying to say is, it a nice policy but we have more than 70 ethnic languages like most bloggers have stated, which makes it difficult to communicate. For instance a person teaching in Western Province gets transferred to Eastern Province, what happens? He has to learn the new language and some meanings.
club zero
January 28, 2014 at 6:58 pm
Next year passin rate wil be -50% if u careful
manda
January 28, 2014 at 7:02 pm
Local language was supposed to remain option as in the past
kayula
January 28, 2014 at 8:52 pm
The policy is bad. Tanzania tried it this time they learning English why? we are just widening the gap between the poor and the rich
CHIPWITI
January 28, 2014 at 9:20 pm
This system is a failure we ve 72 ethnical groups and not 7 ,why should a child in Muyombe ISOKA district be forced to learn in bemba when there mother tongue is Tumbuka or in Lufwanyama to learn in bemba when mother tongue is Lamba,there re more than 100 examples to give,besides there re no teachers for this …its a DISASTER
Musonda
January 28, 2014 at 9:26 pm
I conquor with you Kayula. Countries like Tanzania are now regreting having upheld Swahili over English. There international business was affected because their people were backwards. Angola and Mozambique have ditched Portugues and are now teaching English in there schools. Not too long ago Botwana imported teachers and nurses from Zambia. Advanced countries like Germany teach English and Germany parallel because they know that English is an international languagem
After advancing this level, why should we take mother Zambia four decades aback?
cman
January 29, 2014 at 4:10 pm
SOME SWAHILI WORDS ARE NOW ADOPTED IN ENGLISH LIKE PANGA, SIMBA
FELONY
January 29, 2014 at 7:48 am
“all animals are equal but others are more equal than others” the MP,DIRECTOR,PRESIDENT will take there children to private sector but the poor will remain in government but learning the samethings.PEOPLE OF ZAMBIA WORKUP LET IT NOT BE LIKE IN THE ANIMAL FARM. WORKUP, WORKUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark
January 29, 2014 at 9:19 am
Its a scheme to create a ruling class. Ministers kids will go to international schools where they will be learning in English while ours will eventually be unable to express themselves in an international language. Besides, if I want my kids to learn in vernacular, I would rather they learn in my mother tongue rather than the Bemba being used on the copperbelt. Furthermore, copperbelt is Lamba land so our children should be tought in Lamba and not Bemba
Lunga Mangana
January 29, 2014 at 9:36 am
THIS IS NOT A GOOD POLICY. LET ENGLISH BE TAUGHT AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN. THIS CHANGE WILL INTERFERE WITH THE LEARNING OF OUR CHILDREN.
WE ARE NOW IN A GLOBAL VILLAGE WHERE WE NEED TO EXPRESS OURSELVES CLEARLY IN ENGLISH AS OUR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE. LOCAL LANGUAGES CAN JUST BE TAUGHT ALONG SIDE.
DO NOT MAKE OUR CHILDREN SPEAK BROKEN ENGLISH AS WE HEAR IN SOME COUNTRIES.
ak75
January 29, 2014 at 3:42 pm
think of the chines and Russians . when some body gets a scholarship to that country, they have to spend a year learning their mother tongue before they can do what they went there for . Sometimes i wonder if our languages are inferiority to English or not . i wonder if we are following the trends of what is happening globally in regards to language protection . even if we say they are 73 tribes , do you understand about the dialects associated with each major language . let us explore bamunyina and defend our position from the informed background .
cman
January 29, 2014 at 4:07 pm
NICE ONE
PF
January 29, 2014 at 1:15 pm
@Mark, spot on buddy. That’s partly our objective. Are you one of us?
Dot G
January 29, 2014 at 2:06 pm
These Animals in Government have crossed the line. They think they make us dance to their tunes everyday? This policy is pathetic. It will just make our worst education system to become worse.
cman
January 29, 2014 at 2:13 pm
have respect chikala chobe
Davido
January 29, 2014 at 4:07 pm
The policy have not been properly explained and it has been misrepresented to a greater extent that even the teachers do not know exactly what the policy is all about. Using a common language as a method of instruction is totally different to teaching that language. For example instructing someone to switch on a computer in bemba does not necessary involve translating every word in bemba.”Pa kwasha computer kutinika apa” can suffice as an instruction in bemba to switch on a computer. Besides we are talking about a common language in the area and the language used in the copperbelt is not bemba but some common language similar to bemba
oscar
January 29, 2014 at 4:30 pm
Why can’t we team up and reject this nonsense,i went to mbeya tanzania i almost failed to do business there because the chaps could not understand english. I wonder whether they even vist developed countries like england because they are extremely backward.is this what we want mwebantu.Please God help us from this goverment of old ministers with old fashioned policies.
Malchi
January 29, 2014 at 4:37 pm
Its not a good policy at all. Govt should learn to consult before imposing things on us. After all we are a democratic state. If the majority do not like something, please learn to listen. Children should be taught English which is the official language right from the start. Very soon someone will pass a policy to say of the 7 popular languages, language so so is more popular so let it be the official language. Whichever way you look at it, it is a challenge both to the teacher and the pupil for so many reasons. English is not tribal. The tribal tag will also be there if only 7 tribes are chosen out of the 73! Bisa is not Bemba, Nkoya is not lozi, ila is not tonga, chewa is not ngoni and so on and so forth. Seriously reconsider and retract.
James H
January 30, 2014 at 5:47 pm
I started grade in the village, and I recall how difficult it was for us to learn english. This policy isn’t good. we aren’t saying local languages should be discarded, no! Teachers can teach in english and local languages simultaneously to the beginners, bearing in mind that not all children are coming from homes where they use english. The moment the teacher feels that children are now able to follow in english, that’s when english can take preeminence! Please let’s correct this mercy. The policy should be acceptable throughout Zambia so that even when UPND forms govt in future, the policy will still stand. MAY GOD BLESS ZAMBIA!
S M
January 30, 2014 at 5:48 pm
thats right