LEARNING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KENYA: OVERVIEW, PROBLEMS AND THE WAY FORWARD

Abstract

Indigenous languages face extinction in the near future despite the important role they play in communication, cultural preservation, and identity of indigenous people. The threat is the direct consequence of colonialism and colonial practices and is currently exacerbated by globalization. Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples guarantees rights to these peoples to revitalize, use, develop, and transmit to future generations their languages, oral traditions, writing systems, and literatures. Further, it provides that states shall take effective measures to protect this right, including through interpretation in political, legal, and administrative proceedings. Consequently, Kenya’s language-in-education policy dating from the colonial period has been supportive of the teaching of indigenous languages in schools. For example, in the more recent curriculum reforms of 2017, Kenya set out to offer indigenous languages both as a medium of instruction and as a subject right from pre-primary to lower secondary levels of education as spelled out in the Basic Education Curriculum Framework. However, weak enforcement of the language policy coupled with a myriad of implementation challenges have been major drawbacks to the success of indigenous language instruction in schools. Hence the discussions about the importance of the use of indigenous languages in schools are still hotly debated. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to present an overview of and problems of learning indigenous languages in public primary schools in Kenya. Finally, relevant suggestions have been put forward to overcome the problems.

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