Pupils in Uganda
This idea of punishing young pupils for not speaking English at school is totally out of order. It is a crime against our rich culture and heritage.
Why on earth would you punish a young child speaking his or her own language? The one you call vernacular. Do you even know the meaning of the word vernacular? If libraries are far, use Google or Wikipedia.
I know the essence is to make the young souls understand the language as early as childhood so they can use it in future for business or getting employed. That is excellent of teachers, but the idea of punishing them for speaking their mother tongues is insane!
We were taught in....and free to speak Runyankole at my home school (Karuhembe) until primary five when
I joined a slightly urbane adored school (Ruhika)... and there, things shifted against my favour. Everyone spoke English....even the cook... And whoever spoke a local dialect would be forced to wear a weird sack....labelled "I'm a fool". And at the end of the day whoever wore the sack would be heavily punished. I wdnt deny the fact that i got frequent punishments for wearing the sack....but that ddnt stop me from being the best student in English. So what was the essence?
I have seen students study from the best schools in Kampala.....whose English is worse off than me who studied from Karuhembe. I have seen countries whose nationals hardly pronounce a word in English(Tanzania, Rwanda, Angola etc) but are better off than Ugandans who take English as our mother tongue. I have seen Economic blocks perform better economically, yet most of their nationals can't spell a word in English. The European Union for instance has countries like Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, France, Russia etc). These countries successfully progressed and worked and developed together regardless of whether they spoke English or not.......and now Britain has exited.
I know some concepts are hard to grasp in our local languages especially in the fields of science and IT....things to do with computers..... but again some countries have advanced their technology with or without English (China; Lenovo, techno, huawei, Germany; Benzes and Volkswagen, Japan; Toyota, Nissan, Honda.......and South Korea; Samsung.... Or even small Taiwanese with their HTCs). Why then do we Ugandans who were punished to speak English look out for these countries' products?
I have also seen personalities who have highly succeeded in life... When they don't know....or have just learnt English matter-of-factly; Edrisa Musuuza for instance, Diamond Platinum, Kato Lubwama, Seya or even Arnold Swarzenneger who spoke his first English word at age 20... After winning the world body building championship and migrating to the US from Austria. Was English his passmark? A big no.
That said, knowing English is excellent and adorable, but it will not pay you rent, buy you a car or get you a good looking woman or man.....but hard work, resilience, positive thinking, focus and a creative mind will get you there.....
Perhaps that's what teachers should focus on teaching young pupils instead of punishing them for not speaking English.
See you at success
I WILL ALWAYS RESPECT PAUL KAFEERO.
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