Teach in mother tongues

By Eva Nabagesera THE mother tongue should be used as a medium of instruction in all educational programmes up to P4, the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) Curriculum Specialist Geraldine Bukenya, has said. “English should be taught as a subject from P1 to P5 and become a medium of instruction in P6, to prepare the children for Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE),” Bukenya said. She was on Friday speaking at a workshop at Bulange, organised by Buganda Minister of Education Chrysostom Muyingo, on Teaching of Mother Tongues in Primary Schools. The workshop was attended by education officials from Buganda districts. Bukenya, a Mother tongues Specialist, said Luganda, Runyakitatra, Lwo, Ateso-Akirimojong and Lugbara, the languages of wider communication, should be taught as subjects in primary schools. “Bearing in mind that Uganda is multilingual with about 63 languages, the government decided to begin writing instructional materials in those six regional languages,” Bukenya said. Mityana South MP Arthur Bagunywa presented a paper on the purpose of teaching mother tongues.