Students to learn ‘pidgin’ science

By Allan Olingo

Kenyans like to make fun of Nigerians, especially the Pidgin English in their movies that leave listeners struggling understanding what they are saying.

But for Kiswahili speaking Tanzanians, that’s not a bother. They are getting Nigerian speaking Science teachers at no cost.

It appears the Zanzibar Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is finalising preparations to receive 15 science teachers from Nigeria to help improve education in the islands.

According to the islands Principal Secretary (PS) Ms Mwanaidi Saleh, they are expecting 15 teachers by end of September.

“This will definitely be a great support for secondary students,” Saleh said.

Volunteers

According to Saley, it was previously planned to ‘import’ ten teachers, but fortunately Nigeria has offered five more to support the island’s efforts to minimise shortage of science teachers in Zanzibar schools.

“The Nigerians teachers that we are expecting are volunteers and they will be in Zanzibar for two years. During this period, we will be not paying their salaries, but our responsibility will be to take care of them by providing accommodation, transport, and health services, “the PS said.

What is interesting is that Zanzibar is a predominantly Kiswahili speaking island while Nigerians, even though are English speaking, have a predominant pidgin accent. It will be interesting to see how these two will merge and its outcome.

The Island’s Government has mentioned that education is one of its priorities, allocating a huge budget, which includes cost of recruiting more skilled teachers mainly for science subjects.

Surplus

According to The Citizen, a Tanzanian newspaper, the relationship between Zanzibar and Nigeria has existed for decades, and in 1998 Zanzibar hired nine Nigerian judges to improve its judiciary during Dr Salmin Amour Juma’s (The Fifth President of Zanzibar) presidential term.

At least one of the Nigerian Judges was given the task to preside over the treason case, which involved 18 members of the Civic United Front (CUF). The case ended in 2001.

One would have thought Kenya, which has a surplus of teachers — many unemployed — would have sent a 100 or so science teachers to sort out their neighbour.

Unfortunately, Kenyans speak horrid Kiswahili and with even the ones in employment striking for better wages, the likelihood of volunteers stepping forward is probably zero.

And it’s a crying shame because Zanzibar has just lost a golden opportunity to teach its students how to cheat at an exam.