The workshop was jointly organized by the Research Centre on Multilingualism of the University of Hamburg Germany and the Institute of Languages of Makerere University Uganda The objective was to explore the many different ways in which literacy is used and valued in the various linguistic communities. We reprint here the discussion papers by Anthony Okech and Godfrey Sentumbwe.
Godrey Sentumbwe, Programme Manager of LABE Literacy and Basic Adult Education in Kampala, examines the question whether in a country such as Uganda with very many ethnic groups, literacy should be taught in the mother tongue or the local language, or in the official national language, English.
In the White Paper on Education, which provided the policy that still guides most of educational development and activities in Uganda, the Government provided as follows:. The rest of formal education was to be carried out in English as the medium of instruction in urban areas English would be used from the start of primary education.
Kiswahili and English were to be taught as compulsory languages throughout primary and secondary education, with growing emphasis on Kiswahili at the later stages. The area language was to be taught as a subject in both rural and urban areas: it would be examinable but not compulsory at Primary Leaving Examination PLE. From Senior 1 first year of Secondary School students were to be encouraged to take another foreign language and, optionally, one major Ugandan language. Choice of language in basic literacy programmes for adults would be the responsibility of the local authorities.
Psychologists and experts in the teaching of reading and writing argue that pupils acquire literacy much better and more permanently when they start in their first language and then transfer to another language, than when they try to learn it directly in a second language. The multilingual strategy therefore promotes better learning.
