Education sector needs rapid resuscitation

Last week a friend of mine asked me the equivalent of a popular television jingle:” ---ah student, oh students! Who can tell me what global-warming is?” To which the student fails to reply in English forcing the teacher to allow her to respond in Kiswahili. My friend wanted to know why it was almost impossible today to find sufficient English language sub editors aged between 25 and 45 in Tanzanian newsrooms. He lamented that currently the recruitment of subs was the signing up of tired people aged 50 onwards, which he called a dying workforce. This is a disturbing question because it connotes the gravity of the educational crisis we are currently facing. To doubting Thomas’s, however, educational standards have never foundered, if anything they have tremendously improved over the years. Unfortunately, that is not all the truth to this matter. In fact, the mentioned newsroom crisis is only a tip of a wider education crisis we are facing. I told my friend that we suffer from a generation gap in the education sector. But I realise that my readers would like to see the link between the falling mastery of the English language, as it were, and nose-diving educational standards. Fortunately, HakiElimu in the TV jingle above have said it all; there is an unmistakable mess in our education sector, which is why most big shots send their children to English medium schools, leaving public schools to the majority poor. But as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere once quipped, we should understand Her Majesty’s language, because English is the Kiswahili of the world, full stop.I say full stop because we cannot chew the bone that proved impossible to the hyena’s deadly molars. If cultural powers like Spain, Portugal and even France, not to mention other world powers are using it as a crucial language, who are we to do otherwise? Besides, this centuries-old language is production-oriented as opposed to other consumer-centred languages like our very own Kiswahili. Above all, the English language is custodian of rich educational insights and innovations in terms of science, technology and other academic exploits without which nations could live thousands of years behind. However, all this is beside today’s main agenda. My sole brief is to try to account for the above-mentioned generation gap, to suggest ways to minimize it and possibly to bury it all together. There is little doubt that we sustained many of our present educational injuries after the 1974 Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme, which emphasized the increased quantity of students at the chagrin of falling levels of quality. To achieve the political ambitions of the time, thousands of failed primary pupils were hastily recruited to teach their colleagues to pass the same examination that they had failed. Slowly but surely, wide cracks began showing in the sector but which went unnoticed and as such, un-repaired. It is surprising that authorities did not note the plummeting standards and fix them in time. Initially, mediocrity crept into the primary school level, whose output became increasingly sub standard, with most leavers failing to communicate in proper English and even in grammatically correct Kiswahili. Of course, this was an outright sign of falling educational standards. After saturating the lower levels, the poison went to the secondary schools where even more harm was done. With sloppy knowledge of the principal medium of communication, among students and amongst their teachers, the situation could not get worse.I would say that it took close to four long decades to undo our system, from the bottom to the apex. That, I told my friend, explains why newsrooms like other sectors in this country find it difficult to recruit enough proficient English language communicators. However, I was quick to point out that there has been a respite lately through the establishment of private English medium schools since the late 80’s. But it remains to be seen how far such a tiny drop in the sea could change the worsening situation.Yes, the situation is worsening because the newly introduced mass public schools throughout the country will only aggravate an already tense situation, for lack of qualified teachers, books, laboratories, libraries and the rest. The way forward, therefore, is first to admit our folly and quickly move forward methodically, placing more emphasis on the European language. I have argued repeatedly that a focused five-year programme could do the trick, by raising enough teachers and materials from places like Kenya, Uganda, the US, UK, India and so on. Certainly, the government can handle this at bilateral, multilateral or some other way around. That is the most optimal way forward to resuscitate our sickly educational system.