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Tanzania Ditches English In Education Overhaul Plan

Tanzania Ditches English In Education Overhaul Plan

By Peter Ongiri | From Turkish Weekly

Tanzania on Saturday announced a new educational overhaul plan, one that will extend basic education to Form 4, instead of the current Standard VII.

“It’s our hope that when students complete this basic education, which is compulsory up to Form 4, they will be at an age ready to contribute to the country’s development,” Sifuni Mchome, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, said.

He added during a televised national ceremony that the new system would abolish national examinations for primary school leavers.

Mchome noted that students would have their final exams after 11 years in primary and secondary schools.

He said the new system would make primary and secondary education free of charge at state-run schools.

Most important in the new system is that it will ditch English as a language of instruction at Tanzania’s schools, making Kiswahili – the mother tongue of the people of Tanzania – the instruction language in these schools.

English dominated teaching in Tanzania’s schools from secondary to tertiary levels for a long time.

“Language studies will then be available to enable students to communicate in English,” Atetaulwa Ngatara, the assistant director for policy at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, said.

“Communicating in English is something to do with language studies,” he added.

Read more at Turkish Weekly