ELT World » Africa

Ireland: African pupils more likely to be bullied

david — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:44:39 +0000

African children are more likely to be bullied at Irish schools than Eastern Europeans, a new report claims. According to the Irish Independent, ‘Adapting to Diversity: Irish Schools and Newcomer Students‘, compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute, surveyed 1,200 primary and second-level schools across the country.

Most newcomers do not have English as a first language. Language needs, if not addressed, are seen to hinder the academic development and social integration of newcomer students.

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Swaziland: Brigadier Fonono joins the siswati/English language debate

david — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:51:41 +0000

For a number of years now, English has remained a passing subject and despite calls from certain sections of society for a review of this, things have remained unchanged, notes the Observer.

Retired Army Commander and cultural connoisseur Brigadier Fonono Dube said it was irrational that English remained a passing subject when siswati was the country’s mother tongue. His speech was met with thunderous applause from the teachers although he might have ignited the English/Siswati debate and which amongst the two should be made a passing subject.

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Uganda lays mother-tongue foundations

david — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:04:23 +0000

Uganda: The first-language teaching policy highlights the rural-urban education divide, notes the Guardian. On a hot Friday afternoon at Katine primary school, in north-east Uganda, Santa Awiyo points her large wooden ruler at the blackboard as her year-three pupils chant the words she has written in white chalk. ” Idwe pore ngapo, igwen me sukulu gi . . . ” The paragraph, written in Kumam, the local dialect of this rural region, refers to the importance of school uniform and is part of a lesson that combines language and social studies.

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Somali students share memoirs from Kenya to Lewiston

david — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:31:34 +0000

Somalia and the United States: The crowd listened intently as the soft-spoken, sometimes shy writers took the stage to read excerpts from their new book, notes the Sun journal. They read poems praying for a better life, autobiographical accounts of the harsh reality of life in a refugee camp and stories about the hope and inspiration they discovered in a central Maine community thousands of miles away from the African desert.

The anthology is “meant to both reflect the refugee journey from Somali to Dadaab to the United States to Lewiston, and reflect the diversity in Lewiston,” declared Patricia Buck, a professor of educational anthropology at Bates College and another co-editor of the collection. “They are looking for ways to be included in their new community without losing their identity.”

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Ethiopian streetkids turn to PCs in language challenge

david — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:30:04 +0000

Ethiopia: In the shadow of Addis Ababa’s biggest Orthodox church, notes Reuters, more than 100 street children cluster around gazing as Amharic script flashes on computer screens before them. Ethiopia, one of Africa’s biggest and poorest countries, has more than 80 languages. Experts say a quarter of those are on the verge of extinction, and the government faces a tricky balance between protecting its linguistic heritage and training workers to compete in a globalised world.

As a result, the five-year-olds at Medhamiyalus Church’s tiny primary school have to tackle three different tongues: their local language, Amharic — the official language of Ethiopian business and politics — and English. “English is most important for our students, otherwise they cannot cope, they cannot get the proper education intended for them,” school principal Fikre Teferra told Reuters TV.

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MTN Moves to Stem Decline in Education Standard in Nigeria

david — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:55:38 +0000

Nigeria: allAfrica reports that, in an effort to stem the declining standard of education in Nigeria, leading GSM provider, MTN, has introduced an interschool quiz competition, tagged MTN Smarter Brains Competition. The competition which will draw participants from junior secondary schools in Lagos and other parts of the country will focus primarily on their fluency and proficiency in the use of English Language.

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No Swahili, no Haya… just English

david — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:57:38 +0000

Tanzania: At SHSS, all of the students speak English, and some very fluently, declares the News of the North. All rules are enforced very strictly by the staff, including the rule that “No student will speak the native language while on the grounds of SHSS.” The purpose behind this rule is that by knowing the English language, students will be able to succeed in the world beyond Tanzania.

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British educationist declares English standards in Tanzania schools low

david — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:41:26 +0000

Tanzania: The Director of the village education project in Kilimanjaro, Katy Allen, is advocating a policy change in the teaching of English in the country. Allen, a Briton by origin, started the village education project in 1994. In her paper titled: “What happened to our good English?“, she says after working in Tanzania for 14 years, she thinks that users of the language lack good command. Allen adds that often the teachers lack the required skills, admitting that it’s easy option to blame them, as it ignores the fact that they are the result of overall system they are in.

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Tunisia to launch English language teaching reform project

david — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:55:27 +0000

Tunisia: Middle East Online reports that the Tunisian Ministry of Education and Training signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Council in London Tuesday, to prepare for a huge project aimed at English language teaching reform in all state primary and secondary schools in Tunisia.

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Language freedom in schools on cards in South Africa

david — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:13:17 +0000

South Africa: The statutory body responsible for protecting language rights wants teachers and school governing bodies to stop compromising the freedom of pupils to choose their language of tuition. Pan South African Languages Board (Pansalb) chief executive officer Ntombenhle Nkosi said almost 14 years into the new dispensation, teachers and SGB members at the majority of former Model C schools were imposing English as a first language. “The language and education policies allow for a child to choose a home, first additional and second additional languages of their choice.

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