IMPLICATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL LANGUAGE POLICY AND PRACTICE ON LEARNERS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AT LOWER PRIMARY SCHOOL IN KENYA

Abstract

The national language policy in Kenya prescribes a multilingual approach to the language of instruction used in primary schools. 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 adoption issues for teachers and learners considering that Kenya is linguistically heterogeneous, and the overall problem then is that there exists differential implementation of language policy in lower primary school in Kenya. This study was designed 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 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 1,075 learners from the sampled schools. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics like ratios and percentages. Inferential statistics (Chi-Square Test of independence, Spearman’s Correlation, Kruskall-Wallis Test, ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses. Hypotheses tests were conducted at α = 0.05. The findings of the study indicate that there is a gap between policy and practice in lower primary schools. There is no significant difference in teachers’ attitudes towards educational language policy across urban, rural and semi-urban schools. 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. The ANOVA showed that there is a significant difference between the Grade 4 mean scores of learners taught in English and those taught in Kiswahili or Mother Tongue in Grade 1 to 3. The mean scores of those who were taught in English were higher than those of learners taught in Kiswahili or Mother Tongue. The study recommends that the policy should shift towards a uniform language of instruction for all learners in lower primary school. Notwithstanding the need to preserve the heritage of local languages, the ability to interact globally is the foundation of social and economic development. English language is recommended as it is a widespread language in academia and commerce globally. The results of the study will be of value to those concerned with language policy planning and implementation in lower primary schools.