Exploring Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the Medium of Instruction in Zanzibar Education Systems
Keywords:
language-in-education, mother tongue, second language, foreign language, ZanzibarAbstract
This paper presents critically analysis of Medium of Instruction (MoI) statements that can sufficiently inform government position on language-in-education policy, and then examines an indepth understanding of stakeholders’ opinions, regarding the statements of MoI of Zanzibar Education Policy (ZEP) for 2006. Zanzibar archipelago as a part of the United Republic of Tanzania has an independent system for pre-primary and primary education. However, ZEP has been frequently changing the MoI several times which lead to poor performance. Data is drawn from a face-to-face interview and documentary sources; the interview was involved a total number of twenty-four (24) key informants from eight (8) departments or institutions. Similarly, the paper reviewed some key documents from Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. Furthermore, the study was guided by Spolsky’s (2004) language policy as management, practice, and belief. Therefore, findings generally reveal that the MoI statements should depict authenticity, experience of teaching and learning, society and global significance. Addition to that, English as MoI should be taught as foreign language (FL). Henceforth, this study extends the importance of language policy in education.
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