Which way for mother tongue?

If I am not wrong, at the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Education proposed that children in lower primary be taught in their mother tongue.

The argument from the Government was that research shows that it would set a good academic base for the minors. But those who opposed it — parents associations and unions — argued that it was retrogressive and would not enhance national cohesion. They argued that the implementers of this policy are old men and women at the ministry who are eager to push for directives not in tandem with current happenings.  I agree with those opposed to the move. These policy makers are truly not in touch with reality on the ground. This policy would have been impossible to implement.

Mother tongue is slowly being diluted as the generation Y meets on Facebook,  ‘Whattsup’ each other and hook up online.

Kids of this generation do not even know their mother tongue, so how will the teacher communicate in a language they do not know. Take my daughter Tasha’s case.

My parents are from two different communities, just like my hubby and I.

My hubby and I speak to each other in English and Kiswahili. But funny enough, I speak to my daughter in Kiswahili while my hubby insists on talking to her in English. It’s a middle class thing (middle class Kenyans think it is superior to use English as opposed to Kiswahili}. But I love my Kiswahili; it’s beautiful, exotic and truly Kenyan. Anyway, back to mother tongue.

My house help speaks to Tasha in broken Kiswahili and the neighbour’s kids speak with her in sheng. In school, they are taught English and French.

With such a cocktail of languages, what mother tongue is Tasha supposed to speak? Just like my daughter, the new generation of kids has no clue what their mother tongue is. These are kids whose shosos are Kikuyu, gukas Kamba and daddy a mzungu and so on.

Because of increased intermarriages, our kids are slowly losing their ethnic identity. With kids with names like Glady’s Cherono Wambui, mother tongue will be a thing of the past in the next ten years.

We are clearly raising a ‘tribeless’ and ‘clanless’ generation. Their only common thread is love.

Photo: www.indianmomsconnect.com