Language as Protest: Technology-enabled Mother-Tongue Instruction to Improve Learning Outcomes in North and Northeast Kenya

• In Event: Language and Representation

Proposal

Kenya has been lauded as one of the most progressive and effective education systems in Africa. Significant investments in education funding, innovative technology-enabled approaches to improve teaching and learning, and committed leadership make Kenya an example for neighbours and others across the world. However, at a sub-national level significant variances in education access and quality arise. While many improvements have been made to participation, quality, equity and inclusion in education in Kenya, there are persistent disparities in access and outcomes for rural learners, girls, learners with disabilities and other vulnerable populations. The North and Northeastern (N/NE) counties of Kenya are where some of the greatest disparities exist. According to a June 2022 World Bank brief, most counties in Kenya exceed 12 expected years of school. In Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) like those in N/NE Kenya, expected years of schooling are as low as 6.5 years. Statistics show that a class 2 pupil in urban centres can more comfortably express themselves than a class 6 pupil in the rural areas. School dropout rate in the rural areas is 8% and enrollment rate is 11% due to persistent drought, famine and inter-community conflicts.

In Kenya, the language of instruction is English or Swahili. However, some rural and pastoral communities only understand their local mother tongue, which is the primary language at home. The language of instruction at school may not be understood by parents and caregivers, creating a barrier between families and school systems.
Additionally, teachers are often transplanted from other regions of Kenya to the N/NE region, making it difficult for them to understand the language of local communities and effectively support parental engagement in learning. Literacy levels of the adults (especially mothers) in the region are also low and consequently there is little support for learning to happen at home.

With little understanding of either language of formal instruction and a non-local teacher who may not speak their mother tongue, learners struggle to engage fully with the curriculum. Digital content in mother tongue languages can bridge the gap between home language and the language of instruction.

Research from Brookings Institution (Bah, 2022) and numerous other sources shows that learners are more likely to enrol and stay in school when taught in their primary language, and their overall learning outcomes are improved. Additionally studies have shown that children who are taught in their first language in the early years are more successful at transferring these skills to a second language later. UNESCO promotes mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual approaches in education as an important factor for inclusion and quality in education. Kenyan language scholars have also for decades advocated and written about the role mother tongues should play in the country.

Kenya’s language-in-education policy states that indigenous languages should be used to teach children from pre-primary up to grade three. This policy has been in existence since 1976. The use of mother tongue instruction, or the “language of the catchment area”, is also written into the country’s new Competency-Based Curriculum framework, which was introduced in 2017. However policy implementation has been lacking. The reality is that teachers from other areas in Kenya are often reassigned to the region to help solve persistent teacher shortages, and these teachers are often not competent in the local languages. Therefore instruction defaults to English or Kiswahili. This lack of policy enforcement means that discussions about the importance of the use of indigenous languages in schools is still debated and a disconnect between teachers, caregivers and learners, leads to lower learning outcomes and discontent with the formal education system.

Innovative approaches to solve these challenges are emerging. For example, M-Lugha is an interactive native language learning app that helps both young and adult learners in rural areas of Kenya acquire basic literacy and numeracy with the help of their respective indigenous languages. With solar-powered devices and a digital learning solution that works both online and offline, learners in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) – where access to consistent, reliable power and connectivity is low – can engage in teacher-led or self-directed learning to help them build their foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

Embracing digitally-enabled tools to support mother tongue instruction is an important form of protest towards coloniality and a formal system that has not enforced evidence-based practices to ensure equitable access for all learners. Through technology-enabled mother tongue instruction, teachers and caregivers can collectively act to better support learners in N/NE Kenya, and ensure that learners receive the education they deserve.

This session proposes to introduce research conducted by EdTech Hub in Kenya, “The Use of Technology to Promote Equity and Inclusion in Education in North and Northeast Kenya”, with a focus on technology-enabled mother tongue instruction. The goal of this research was to better understand the barriers to equity and inclusion in education in N/NE Kenya, and to highlight the role that technology can play in helping to address these challenges. To uncover answers to these questions, researchers reviewed a mix of policy documents, research reports, verified media reports, and other reliable sources to inform the understanding of the context of the region and the topics of equity and inclusion in Kenya. Additionally, researchers spoke with key informants representing special needs education, persons with disabilities, school feeding projects, gender equity and girls education, and nomadic and pastoralist communities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and notes were synthesized to provide insight into the barriers to education, the existing technology-enabled solutions to address equity and inclusion in education and the opportunities that exist for the future.

The session will feature learnings from this qualitative research process and present insights on the role of technology to support mother tongue learning. The session will also include learnings and impact data from one of the featured case studies in the report, the digital mother tongue learning app M-Lugha.

Authors

• Jennifer Cotter Otieno, Education Design Unlimited

• Ciku Mbugua, EdTech Hub

• Abdinoor Yerrow, M-lugha