Uganda: Local Languages Key to Understanding Science - Headmaster

[Ɔkyeame Kwame]

Uganda: Local Languages Key to Understanding Science - Headmaster

The Monitor (Kampala)
Monitor Online | Sunday Monitor
November 22, 2006
Posted to the web November 21, 2006

Michael J Ssali

The retired headmaster of Masaka Secondary School, Haji Ali
Ssendagire, has called upon science teachers in Africa to adopt local
languages as a medium of instruction for science subjects.

Speaking during a parents day at Kabukunge Primary Teachers College in
Masaka District on Saturday, he said he had turned to writing books
"to fill the missing link" between the African child and the study of
science.

Ssendagire, who qualified as a science teacher at Makerere University
about 40 years ago, said he intends to write his books in Luganda
because according to him, the English language in which Science is
taught has proved a major barrier to understanding it.

He retired as headmaster in November 2005. He used to teach Chemistry,
Physics, Mathematics and Biology. Ssendagire observed that most
countries that have made important developments in science chose to
use their mother tongues to teach the subject.

He mentioned China, Japan and a number of Arab countries. "The
Frenchman does not have to wait to learn English to study Medicine,
but the Uganda student is compelled to begin by leaning a foreign
language to pursue a similar course. So many of our intelligent youth
have missed out merely for not being able to master the foreign
languages," Ssendagire said.
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He asked parents to encourage their children to take their science
studies seriously because the world has gone digital and almost
everything hinges on science. "Science can prolong life but it can, on
the other hand, shorten it," Ssendagire said.

"When we fall sick, we can be examined and treated scientifically. But
by inventing disastrous weapons such as bombs and guns, man has used
science to shorten lives of not only mankind but also that of animals
and plants."

Ssendagire also reminded parents of the swiftness with which modern
communication takes place, saying you can easily communicate with
someone overseas because of Science.

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