Why demoting Kiswahili in Kenya's education reforms may be counterproductive

 

As Kenya hosts the third session of World Kiswahili Day celebrations on July 7, 2024, there is a need to deeply reflect on the place of Kiswahili in our education syllabi.

The Report of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms in Kenya (PWPER), which was officially released in State House Nairobi, recently, has, for example, continued to elicit debate among education experts and stakeholders across the country on the course and trajectory of education in the country.  

The findings of the report, were based on primary information that was gathered across the country by the team, led by Prof Raphael Munavu. If implemented fully, the report is likely to have serious ramifications in Kenya’s education system.

Whereas some of the recommendations, for instance, the complete overhaul of the funding model in the country’s higher education spur lots of hope in re-engineering the whole education system, others arguably erode some gains accrued from the previous government pronouncements and policies.

A case in point is the recommendation by PWPER on the place of Kiswahili in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). In the 8-4-4 system of education that is being replaced with CBC, Kiswahili is a core subject right from primary through secondary school.  In the CBC, Kiswahili as a subject is compulsory in Grades 1- 9, and optional in Grades 10 -12.

In Grades 10 -12 (senior secondary), students are supposed to choose between English Language, Literature in English, Lugha ya Kiswahili, Fasihi ya Kiswahili (Kiswahili Literature), Kenyan Sign Language, Indigenous Languages, Arabic, French, German, and Mandarin.

Kiswahili has a special place in Kenya’s Constitution of 2010, the Languages of Kenya Bill, and the Languages of Kenya Policy, and should not be treated as just any ‘ordinary’ language. For example, Article 7 (1, 2 & 3) of the Constitution of Kenya (2010) provides that Kiswahili shall be the national and official language of the Republic, and the State shall promote and protect it. 

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (National Kiswahili Association) - CHAKITA, an outfit that brings together Kiswahili scholars and other stakeholders had noted the gap of ‘demoting’ Kiswahili from being a core subject in Grades 10 -12 of the CBC outfit and presented its views to PWPER so that the anomaly could be rectified, but it seems the taskforce appointed by President William Ruto ‘ignored’ or overlooked the views completely.

Relegating Kiswahili to the periphery by making it an optional subject of study in Kenya’s education system is likely to be counterproductive, taking into cognizance the fact that other countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, Burundi, Zambia, Mozambique, The Democratic Republic of Congo, among others, are investing heavily on the language. Uganda for example has started teaching Kiswahili as a core subject across its education system.

Recent developments in the spread and use of Kiswahili at national, regional, Pan-African, and global levels, therefore necessitate a number of obligations on Kenya in order to realize planned goals of national, regional, Pan-African, and global integration and sustainable development. Kiswahili has now become a common property and strategic resource for the Community of Nations.

Partner States do not only share its use, they also share the responsibility for its development and promotion. Kenya needs to be at the center of this widening circle of the development and use of Kiswahili. 

In the same vein, Kenya should fast-track the pending establishment of Baraza la Kiswahili la Kenya (the National Kiswahili Council), which would assist the Government in proper language planning and management at the policy level, implementing decisions and directives on the promotion of the language, and monitoring mechanisms of language-related policy decisions. 

Due to the importance of Kiswahili as a detribalizing language in a multi-ethnic country such as Kenya, intentional efforts should be made to give the language a lot of prominence in our education system. Tertiary institutions, for example, should ensure they offer compulsory courses on communication skills in Kiswahili, to enable learners –regardless of their career paths, to appreciate the language. People training as engineers, doctors, masons, plumbers, architects, and even farmers would eventually need Kiswahili as a language of wider communication while serving clients in the field. 

Therefore, it is incumbent upon the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to amend the Competency-Based Curriculum so that Kiswahili remains a core subject up to Grade 12.  

Enock Matundura is the translator of Barbara Kimenye’s Moses Series (Oxfrod University Press) and teaches Kiswahili literature at Chuka University