FYI... DZO
Zambian teachers want science lessons in local tongues
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?
fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=News&itemid=2188&language=1
Talent Ngandwe
28 June 2005
Source: SciDev.Net
[LUSAKA] Young children in rural Zambia should learn about science in
their local languages not in English according to the Basic
Education Teachers Union of Zambia (BETUZ).
In a presentation to the parliamentary committee on education,
science and technology on 21 June, BETUZ said the government should
drop English in favour of local languages to teach science subjects
in rural primary schools.
This would help the children understand and express scientific issues
better, said the union.
BETUZ secretary-general Cosmas Mukuka told the committee the
government is making it difficult for children to become scientists
because they fail to understand lessons in English, which is not
their mother tongue.
Zambia has 72 local languages.
Education minister, Andrew Mulenga, told SciDev.Net that the
government is already taking steps to ensure that schools use local
languages in place of English.
A pilot programme to improve basic literacy among children in
northern Zambia, by teaching in local languages, has proved
successful, said Mulenga.
"The course has been translated into seven major languages and we
expect to expand to more languages as soon as resources are
available," he added.
Mulenga said that science and mathematics would be the next subjects
to be treated this way in Zambia.
In January, lecturers at Chainama College of Health Sciences and the
University of Zambia were quoted in the Zambian press as saying that
students admitted to their institutions were failing first-year
science courses.
This raised concerns about the pupils' capacity to undertake classes
in natural sciences at higher level.
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