The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Government is considering introducing compulsory Swahili lessons in primary school and ordinary level across the country. The Gender State Minister, Peace Mutuuzo disclosed this while addressing journalists at the owned Uganda Media Center earlier today.
According to Mutuuzo, this is one of the issues that the Kiswahili Council whose establishment cabinet passed recently will work on when it comes into force. She explains that schools have been reluctant to teach Swahili because it is optional.
Mutuuzo however, says that when the Kiswahili council is operationalized in two months as anticipated, it will work on making Swahili teaching compulsory in all schools among other issues.
Although the idea is to make Swahili teaching compulsory at primary and ordinary levels, Mutuuzo says schools will be encouraged to teach the language even at advanced level.
The idea to introduce compulsory Swahili lesson first came up in the 1992 government white paper on education policy review commission report titled ‘Education for National Integration and Development’. It was recommended that both Kiswahili and English be compulsory subjects throughout the primary cycle in both rural and urban schools.
In 2016, the then East African Affairs Minister, Shem Bageine said Swahili would be compulsory from primary to University level effective 2018. However, this wasn’t possible because of the absence of a regulatory framework and resources.
Mutuuzo says that government now has resources to put in place the council and implement activities, which will include recruiting teachers and other administrators.
She however, couldn’t specify how much is available but said resources would be drawn from government, the East African Community and donors.
Mutuuzo reiterated government’s commitment to popularize Swahili. She says that the Gender Ministry is drafting a roadmap to popularize the language in government institutions and the country at large. All plans shall be implemented by the council once it is operationalized.
According to the 1995 constitution, Swahili is the second official language of Uganda after English. However its development and usage has been low. Uganda’s move to approve the establishment of the council is also in fulfillment of Article137 (2) of the East African Community treaty.
The article states that Swahili shall be developed as a lingua franca of the community to support sustainable development and regional integration, although several member countries haven’t adhered to the provision. Mutuuzo says there was a negative attitude towards Swahili and they are determined to change this perception.
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An excellent proposal hope we young teachers to get jobs. Thanks to the government for such a good proposal.
Some people don’t understand the importance of a national language.
Some still bite tooth and nail to turn “Luganda” into a national language, yes it should be taught, but Swahili remains a million miles far for its the most spoken in whole Africa and globally,
Over 300million people speak Swahili while Luganda makes 13% speakers in Uganda equivaent to approx 5million speakers.
Now, Uganda is still highly divided without a national language.
I support EAC integration
“One people one destiny”
“Harambee”
Pamoja, tutashinda
Baganda are 20% of 44million Ugandan that is 8.8million .
In any case if you people want to give Runyakitara for Swahili and become a colony of Tanzania that is right and personal choice that shouldn’t be forced on other people that totally disagree with that
Baganda are 8.8million (20%) of Uganda. Now if other Ugandans voluntarily choose their culture and social genocide that is their right and choice but that choice shouldn’t be shoved down the throat of others that think otherwise…
So other languages in uganda should fall colony to buganda
The citizens of the European Union speak, swedish,Spanish, Italian, German, polish English ,French, etc and having these different languages has not stopped Europe from being a fairly cohesive entity, it has also not stopped or limited trade,
How has speaking swahili added value to Tanzanians for Tanzania still faces the same challenges as Uganda as it’s an LDC with rampant corruption, gross human violations etc….
Language is just a tool and like all tools it’s value depends on the context and relevance and these semi-literate ministers of museveni should realise swahili is not a magic bullet that can end the challenges Uganda faces. And these same semi-literate ministers should educate themselves on how countries like Japan,South Korea have managed to develop while keeping their languages.
Finally it’s a fallacy to imagine that East Africa Community will only properly function when you shove swahili down the throats of unwilling citizens of Uganda while annihilating their native languages/cultures…and this also goes against the global trends of using English as medium of communication and the speakers of swahili will suffer for this short sightedness as most of the world-changing-knowledge is published in English.
Kiwanuka, the reason why kabaka mutesa 2 was exiled by Andrew cohen was, he rejected East African intergration.
Any one against Swahili implementation is against EAC/integration.
My brother, do u know the repercussions of not integrating with our neighbors, Uganda’s imports pass via Kenya and Tanzania, anything concerning declining the integration is 100% incorrect
And the British realised their foolhardiness and returned the kabaka within a years time and this Muteesa II returned a more popular monarch and hero to his people than when he was forced into exile. There won’t be any repercussions for refusing to submit to cultural & social domination of Uganda’s proud nation’s to Swahili imperialists. Switzerland a country smaller or same size as Buganda has stood up and retained it’s independency even when surrounded by economically & militarily dominant EU…..so to can Buganda…
Baganda didn’t invite you to their country so if you are unhappy you can return to wherever you sprang from and speak Swahili in you tribal area.
And the British realised their foolhardiness and returned the kabaka within a years time and this Muteesa II returned a more popular monarch and hero to his people than when he was forced into exile. There won’t be any repercussions for refusing to submit to cultural & social domination of Uganda’s proud nation’s to Swahili imperialists. Switzerland a country smaller or same size as Buganda has stood up and retained it’s independency even when surrounded by econom
Those obsessed with East Africa federation/confederation/Union etc have they consulted their fellow citizens or held any referendum to
confirm kenyans,Tanzanians, ugandans,rwandans burundians,South Sudanese would want to be one people the (Swahili people)
The megalomaniac obsession with a large East Africa political federation while attempting cultural and social genocide of the ethnic groups maybe a doomed and futile venture….it’s quite obvious some constituents of the now existing East African countries will wage war to regain the precolonial independence (Buganda, Rwanda, Zanzibar, Burundi, the Nande,Acholi etc )
The British with centuries of experience at nation building and at the zenith of their imperial power in the early 20th century attempted and failed an east African federation with no democracy to hinder such dreams…so how will the present much weaker east african heads of state whose hold on power is very precarious at best and who have to contend with some sort of democracy succeed were their British predecessors failed..
Instead of chasing such loony dreams of creating a swahili speaking east african political federation ,these east african leaders could concentrate on improving the administration and service delivery in the much smaller countries.
East African Community project should like SADC be focused on economic cooperation between independent states an not an attempt at new state building or Swahili cultural and social domination/imperialism.
How do you convince the people that they will be able to integrate and interact with different international languages spoken in East Africa? Imagine you are seated in a conference discussing some issues, a Ugandan speaks in English, a Rwandan in French, a Sudanese in Arabic, a Tanzanian in Swahili and so on, why do we need an interpretation of languages and yet we can adopt one of our major languages to solve the puzzle? If all of us knew the ultimate goal of the federation to form one political Bloc, then we would have realised we are even late to implement KISWAHILI as a catalyst. We will not do away with our local dialects such as LUGANDA, but for us all we need a unifying language SWAHILI à language you can hear being spoken in almost all corners of East Africa
EU has conferences with German,french Italian, English, polish, etc speakers and EU is the greatest integration project in world history….in any case English language is good enough and more international than this bastardized coastal tribal Bantu language of Tanzania….whatever Kiswahili claims to offer Luo,Runyakitara,Luganda,Itesot, etc can offer
Your a big fool mukasa. Idiot
Asante sana kaka. Tuombe Mungu tushinde ii vita. Tuko pamoja
But most surprisingly up to now we have not seen how far the proposal is being implemented.