Replacing foreign languages with mother tongue in education in African countries: A review of enabling and disabling factors in Tanzania

Abstract

The practices of providing education in Tanzania are underpinned by the principal that it is a fundamental right and it must be made available to everyone. In the light of this principle, the government of Tanzania has taken series of measures to ensure that there is no just schooling but effective learning for all children in schools. These measures including improvement of language of instruction (LoI) with consideration that LoI not only enable students to receive, process and express information relating to their learning but it also a cornerstone for provision of quality education. Having realized this factor, the government has made several attempts of replacing foreign language (English) with popular mother tongue based language (Kiswahili or Swahili) in post primary education. However, these attempts have been remaining in policy documents without moving forward to its implementation with recently similar attempt also indicate all signs of falling into that trap. Drawing from different studies that were conducted in Tanzania and other African countries, this conceptual review aims to analyse factors that have been pulling back and pushing forward the move of African countries to draw their indigenous languages from peripherals use into central parts of education as LoI with a particular reference of Tanzania.