The Challenges of Teaching Reading in Uganda: Curriculum guidelines and language policy viewed from the classroom

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to consider the challenges which Ugandan children experience in beginning to learn to read. The paper demonstrates that there are disparities between rural government and rural private school approaches to reading and between rural and urban schools. The disparities arise from the uneven ways in which the language-in-education policy is being implemented and the variation in the nature and quality of the reading pedagogy in the early years. Ugandan children are being taught to read in different circumstances: government schools use mother tongue (MT) from Primary (P) 1 to P3 while English and MT are taught as a subject; private schools use English and teach MTs as subject. In addition, some teachers offer pre-school provision in English, so learners start reading in English, have their first formal schooling from P1 in MT (if they move into a government school) and then need to switch back to English in P4. Learners in rural government schools do not attend pre-school and begin to learn to read in P1 through their MTs, with English being taught as subject. This paper presents classroom-based research which provides insights into the ways in which teachers and learners negotiate the challenges posed by these disparities and by the lack of joined-up thinking regarding early reading pedagogy for English and for MTs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the practical implications of these findings for curriculum development and for teacher education.