MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
6.7 SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES
151 interaction between the teacher and the pupils was effective because a familiar language was used.
In another lesson observation at Mandleni Primary School, Teacher Pretty was teaching an English comprehension lesson to her class. When it became clear that her pupils could not give the meaning of the new terms in English she asked the question in Shangani. She said:
Matwisisa yini ne neighbours? (What do you understand by the term neighbours?)
Almost all pupils in the class raised their hands because it seemed their minds had been opened by the teacher’s use of Shangani. From the above discussions, it can be noted that proficiency in Shangani makes teachers enjoy teaching pupils who actively take part through high participation during the delivery of lessons.
In the focus group discussions at Mandleni and Bhizana schools the Shangani participating teachers insisted that the language that enabled them to successfully impart knowledge and skills in learners was the Shangani language. This is an indication that their proficiency in the Shangani language has made their job very simple as they are certain that what they are teaching to the learners is fully understood.
However, both the Shangani and Shona speaking teachers indicated that all the subjects in the curriculum except Shangani, had no resources as the textbooks and teachers’ guides are in English. This was also confirmed through observation of lessons taught by Teacher Nyasha; Teacher Tafadzwa and Teacher Victoria (each representing the three schools). For this reason, as discussed in chapter 5, they translate content from English to Shangani for learners’ mastery of concepts. I am now moving on to discuss how the shortage of resources affects the teachers.
152 Our textbooks are in English but we translate to Shona and Shangani
when we want to explain concepts. In my case I consult with other teachers and pupils who speak Shangani.
Most of them rely on the charts they write because the textbooks are all in English. Below are charts that were displayed in Teacher Victoria’s class:
Figure 6: Charts used by Teacher Victoria to teach Shangani
The charts in fig. 1 above are some of the materials that teacher Victoria is using to make learners understand particular concepts in the subjects like Social Studies, Home Economics and Environmental Science. From her response above, one can note that teacher Victoria will have to first consult with other teachers or school pupils to get translation of a difficult concept that she needs to explain to her learners using the Shangani language that the learners understand.
Interestingly, at Ntolwane Primary School all the teachers at the school, except one student teacher, are Shona speaking. One wonders how much time would a non-proficient Shangani speaker need to translate materials from English to Shangani in an endeavour to help the poor Teacher Victoria who cannot do the translation on her own! But how is she affected by this experience? In response to an interview question which sought to find out if her experiences on translation affected her perceptions on the use of Shangani as the MOI, she said:
153 Definitely because translation is time consuming since one has to
consult. It then makes me feel that we need to hold on a little bit on using Shangani until such time when things are in place.
As evidenced in the above quotation, Teacher Victoria stated categorically clear that translation is time-consuming especially for her because she has to consult with other teachers since she cannot do it on her own. As a direct result of that, she feels that the use of Shangani should be postponed until all cogs are in place for the proper implementation of the policy. It is very unfortunate that the shortage of resources compounded by the teachers’ incompetence in the Shangani language has affected teachers such as Victoria which makes her feel that this is not the right time to implement the policy. Evidently, the young learners who desperately need instruction in the Shangani language which they understand better are the ones who suffer the most if this policy is to be abandoned. This is because a strong foundation to learn another language is laid if learners are fluent and literate in their L1 (UNESCO, 2010) hence the need for sustaining a MTE policy.
In addition to that, Trudell (2016) confirms through the findings of The Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa of 2002-2011 (LOITASA) that better attainment in education is guaranteed if the child’s home language is used in education compared to when they are made to learn in a language that they are still learning. Therefore, abandoning the policy on the use of Shangani as the MOI is not an option, considering that the young learners at the elementary level need it if meaningful learning is to take place.
Other teachers also concurred with Victoria that translation is tedious and time consuming.
For example, when I asked if the shortage of resources affected her perception towards the call for the use of Shangani as the MOI, Teacher Mary from Mandleni Primary School said:
Yes it really affects me. How can I be expected to teach without resources? It’s really hard because we have to translate to the L1 from English and translate again to English
In a follow-up question where I asked why she had to translate so many times, she said:
… Don’t you know that the exercises and exams are in English? But the policy says from Grade one to three we use the L1 to teach.
154 For teacher Mary the translation exercise is cumbersome because she has to first translate from English to Shangani when clarifying difficult concepts and then translate again to English because the exercises should be written in English despite the fact that instruction can come through the Shangani medium. Therefore, teachers have to endure this time consuming exercise because there are no resources.This ultimately waters down the benefits of MTE because as Dutcher (2003) observes, if there are no resources, poorly trained teachers as well as insufficient language growth, MTE is eventually unsuccessful.
Even Teacher Tatenda of Bhizana Primary School who is Shangani speaking finds translation boring and unbearable. In response to an interview question on the issue of translation she said:
Of course it’s tedious to translate from one language to another. It means we spend a lot of time teaching one lesson because after teaching in Shangani you have to teach everything again in English because when they write they have to use English. It makes me think more should be done if this policy is to fully benefit these young souls.
From teacher Tatenda’s point of view, the fact that they have to teach in Shangani yet when it comes to written work learners are expected to write in English, leads them into translating content from English to Shangani and then teaching everything again in English. In fact, this is what I observed her doing when delivering her Mathematics lesson. Like she said in her response above, this makes the whole exercise time consuming and wearisome. She therefore thinks that more has to be done if the policy is to benefit the young elementary level learners. My understanding was that teacher Tatenda is simply using a polite way to tell the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MOPSE) to avail resources in Shangani so that the young learners can enjoy the benefits of Mother Tongue Education.
In addition to the above, teachers also indicated that sometimes they find it difficult to translate some words from English to Shangani. In response to an interview question, Teacher Tanya of Ntolwane Primary School said:
There are no resources, so if we could have these, the policy could be easier to implement. Some words are difficult to translate from English to Shangani.
155 Implied in Tanya’s response is the fact that unavailability of resources makes the Mother Tongue Education policy difficult to implement. Teacher Tanya therefore faces problems in translating some words from English to Shangani in her endeavour to teach through the Shangani medium. The unavailability of textbooks for the various curriculum areas is affecting teachers in that they have to struggle with translation and in some cases they fail to get the correct Shangani equivalents of particular English words. This can be noted in the following excerpt:
T: Matwisisa yini ne filling station? (Can you explain the meaning of the term filling station?)
P: Filling station hindawu vemovha vakuma oyili. (A filling station is a place where motorists refuel their cars.)
From the above excerpt it can be noted that both the teacher and the pupil failed to get the Shangani equivalent for the term filling station (a place where motorists buy fuel for their cars). This implies that, it may be difficult to get all the Shangani equivalents for the English words in the textbooks hence the need to avail resources in the Shangani language to support a mother tongue based instruction at the elementary level.
In response to an interview question which sought to establish if the fact that textbooks for the different subjects were in English and that as teachers they had to translate to Shangani when teaching affected her perception towards the call for the use of Shangani as the MOI, Teacher Tafadzwa of Mandleni Primary School had this to say:
Yes. Because it makes me feel that the policy makers are not serious on the issue so I end up not taking it seriously as well.
The lack of seriousness on the part of MOPSE for not availing resources is now making teachers like Tafadzwa not to take the policy seriously as well. This seems to suggest that teachers like Tafadzwa may end up not putting enough effort in ensuring that they use the appropriate medium of instruction because they think policy should first show seriousness by availing resources in the Shangani medium. This is in line with McKenzie and Walker’s (2013) observation that one of the central contributory factors to the success of a MTE policy is that government should show strong political will to introduce mother tongue learning. If this is not done the policy may not succeed and that is why teachers like
156 Tafadzwa are no longer taking the policy seriously because government has not shown seriousness on the policy as well.
The sentiments raised in the discussion above make me conclude that lack of seriousness by policymakers has led them to ignore the issue of resources to support a mother tongue based instruction at the three schools. As such, it has led teachers; both Shona and Shangani speaking, to be affected negatively as they all agreed that translation is time consuming and boring.
6.8 THE UNAVAILABILITY OF A STANDARDISED SHANGANI