Mother Tongue in Instruction: The Role of Attitude in the Implementation

Abstract

The subject on what medium of instruction provides the child the best learning facility has caused lots of debate leading to a number of projects in various parts of the world. In Kenya, although the education policy on the use of mother tongue as the language of instruction in lower primary classes has been in existence for decades, this has not been institutionalized in schools across the country. With the government’s renewed directive to the use of mother tongue for instruction, it still remains unclear whether this will be implemented as various stakeholders express mixed feelings regarding its relevance. The study findings indicate that some of the challenges facing the use of MT in Kenyan schools include the, multiplicity of languages and dialects, inconsistent strategies employed to handle the situation, sceptical attitudes of the society towards mother-tongue use in education, scarcity of financial resources, pedagogic problems, and even the clash between ethnic loyalties on one hand and the Teacher’s Service Commission policy which mandates a teacher to be posted anywhere within the country. It makes use of data collected from teachers, parents, language specialists as well as policy makers. Data collection involved interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis.

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