In Kenya, the educational language policy prescribes that the language of instruction in lower primary school (Grade 1 to 3) for schools in urban areas should be English or Kiswahili. For schools located in rural areas, the language of instruction in Grade 1 to 3 is the learners' mother tongue or the language of the catchment area of the school. From Grade 4 onwards, all learners are to be instructed and examined in English. For this language policy to achieve its intended outcomes, there is a need for awareness and positive reception by its implementers: lower primary school teachers. This study examines the awareness and attitudes of lower primary school teachers toward the educational language policy. A survey design was adopted for this study. Questionnaires were administered to 75 teachers of Grade 1 to 3, drawn from a stratified multistage sample of 175 primary schools in rural, urban and semi-urban areas of Kakamega County, Western Kenya. The results of the study reveal that lower primary school teachers are aware of the existing language of instruction. The teachers feel that they ought to be free to select the language of instruction based on their particular pedagogical needs. The findings indicate the need for policymakers to review the educational language policy as currently formulated, especially concerning the use of Mother Tongue as one of the languages of instruction in lower primary schools. The current framework leads to a differential application of the policy, which in turn may affect learner outcomes at Grade 4, where all learners switch to the use of English. If the policy is to persist, then learning materials and teaching aids in Mother Tongue should be availed to rural schools to permit equitable outcomes for all learners.
In Kenya, the educational language policy stipulates that the language of instruction in lower primary Grade 1 to 3 in rural settings should be the learners' First Language or Mother Tongue. In urban settings, the language of the school's catchment area (usually English or Kiswahili) should be used as the language of instruction in Grade 1 to 3. Kiswahili and English are to be taught as subjects. English becomes the medium of instruction in all settings from Grade 4 onwards. This policy creates problems for teachers and learners considering that Kenya is linguistically heterogeneous. The purpose of this study was to establish the actual language practice in lower primary school Grade 1 to 3 in relation to declared policy and to evaluate its relationship with learners' academic achievement. The objectives of the study were to establish the actual status of educational language policy and language practice in lower primary schools; to assess the relationship between the language of instruction and English subject scores of learners at Grade 4; to assess the relationship between the language of instruction and Mathematics subject scores of learners at Grade 4. The study area was Kakamega County, which was selected based on being a county with a fair mix of urban, rural and semi-urban schools. The study adopted a correlational design. The study population comprised 1,120 primary schools and 10,767 Grade 4 learners. Multistage sampling was used to select a sample of 175 schools from the population. Questionnaires were administered to 75 teachers and mean scores of Grade 4 assessment results were obtained from 1,076 learners from the sampled schools as part of a different, larger study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics were used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study indicate that there is a gap between policy and practice in lower primary school. The study revealed that there is a strong correlation between the language of instruction at lower primary school and learners' academic achievement at Grade 4 in English and in Mathematics subjects. A policy shift is recommended to unify the language of instructions in the new CBC framework. This is imperative for equality of outcome in the learners' Grade 4 school-based assessment under the CBC.
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