The following item from the Kampala daily New Vision was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200503071400.html . DZO
Make Luganda, Luo And Lugbara Uganda's National Languages New Vision (Kampala) http://www.newvision.co.ug/ OPINION March 7, 2005 Posted to the web March 7, 2005 Livingstone Walusimbi Kampala THE following are my proposals for the amendment of the Uganda Constitution. Uganda consists of four kingdoms: Buganda, Bunyoro, Tooro, and Ankole. Their heads are called kings not traditional or cultural leaders. In Buganda, for example, there are clan leaders. Those leaders are cultural heads of clans. They are not kings. The titles traditional and cultural leaders were used by the British colonialists to refer to our kings because they never recognised them as sovereigns. I therefore, propose the title 'monarch' to be used for the kings and hereditary rulers for other cultural rulers. Districts are too many, especially in Buganda. They will not work efficiently in the proposed regional governments because of limited finance. The old system of counties and sub-county administration should be re-established constitutionally where they existed in the 1962 Constitution. The LC system should be abolished. We should avoid making two foreign or non-indigenous languages official languages of Uganda. Kiswahili is a non-indigenous language of Uganda and very few natives speak it. Although the Government made Kiswahili a compulsory subject in primary education, parents and teachers don't like it. In 2003 the Ministry of Education and Sports set up a Primary Curriculum Review Commission. Its report showed that 82% of primary schools in Uganda were not teaching Kiswahili. The Commission also found out that the majority of the parents and teachers had negative attitude towards Kiswahili. Uganda has three language sub-families namely, Bantu, Nilotics, and Central Sudanic. Bantu is the largest one. Let's therefore adopt Luganda and Runyakitara for Bantu, Luo/Ateso for the Nilotics, and Lugbara/Madi for the Central Sudanic. Primary education is the basic foundation of our children. Unfortunately, the standards have been running down since 1967 mainly because education has been controlled by the Central Government via the districts. The Curriculum Review Commission found out that the overall performance levels of primary schools especially UPE pupils was very poor. Children did not acquire adequate literacy and numeracy skills in either native languages or in English. Failure to achieve early literacy and numeracy was the major cause of poor performance. The serious fall in primary education standards has been due to very poor administration of the Central Government. There was no school supervision at all. Secondary education 'O' and 'A' Level, including post-secondary institutions, should also be administered by the federo or regional governments where possible. The writer is a member of UNESCO Advisory Committee -- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
