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All Africa News Agency 20/03 May 26 2003 (c)
From
Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date
Tue, 27 May 2003 17:16:13 -0700
ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands, NAIROBI, Kenya. Tel: 254-2-4442215,
4440224
Fax: 254-2-4445847, 4443241; Email: aanaapta@insightkenya.com ,
aanaapta@hotmail.com
AANA BULLETIN No. 20/03 - May 26, 2003 (c)
AANA Bulletin is an ecumenical initiative to highlight all endeavours and
experiences of Christians and the people of Africa. AANA Bulletin is
published weekly and, together with the French Edition - Bulletin APTA - is
also available through e-mail. For editorial and subscription details,
please contact:
AANA Bulletin Bulletin APTA
Editor -Elly Wamari Editor -
Silvie Alemba
First Group Of Persecuted Bantus Finally Depart For US
NAIROBI (AANA) May 26 - The first group of 74 Somali Bantus heading for
resettlement in the United States of America (USA), finally left Nairobi
May 20 and 21.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the group
had travelled from Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya to Nairobi on May
11 and 12, where they were accommodated until their departure last week.
"There is a tremendous sense of excitement throughout the community. They
have been waiting for this moment for years," said IOM cultural orientation
teacher, Sasha Chanoff, in a statement.
A persecuted minority of rural farmers in their home country, Somali Bantus
fled Somalia's civil war in 1991 and 1992 and found refuge in Kenya's
camps, where they met renewed persecution at the hands of other Somali
refugees.
In 1999, the US government recognised their plight and pledged to resettle
close to 12,000 residing in Dadaab refugee camp, and more than 500
accommodated in Kakuma camp.
In 2002, due to Dadaab's nearness to Somalia, the US government made an
unprecedented decision to move all the selected Dadaab-based Somali Bantus
to Kakuma camp, near the Sudanese border in north-western Kenya.
The IOM, in collaboration with other NGOs, constructed an additional
refugee camp in Kakuma, with 2,700 mud-brick shelters, pit latrines, a
water point and road infrastructure, as well as a US refugee processing
centre, complete with interview rooms, a medical clinic and X-ray
machine. Cultural orientation classrooms for the Bantus were also put up.
US refugee processing began in September 2002 and by the end of November,
some 1,500 had been accepted for resettlement. However, newly instituted
refugee security checks delayed departures.
The 74 who left last week, have undergone intensive cultural orientation
courses. The orientation included US laws, employment, housing, cultural
adjustment and day-to-day modern way of life.
According to information from IOM, an additional 150 of the Somali Bantus
will follow their colleagues before mid June.
Reported by Muuna Wamuli
Controversy Emerges Over Local Language Ban In School
BLANTYRE (AANA) May 26 - Officials of St. Andrew's international high
school in Blantyre have denied allegations that students in the school were
being forced to speak European languages only and not any ethnic language,
within the school's premises.
The headmaster of the school, Roger Dallimore, was reacting to a report
that parents and students were angered by an order stopping them from
speaking local languages, including the national vernacular language,
Chichewa. They said this deprived them of their rights and freedom of
expression.
The parents condemned what they described as a rule under which school
authorities punished and threatened with expulsion, any student found
speaking any language other than English, French and other European
languages.
But Dallimore challenged the parents, saying they were misinformed by their
children.
He expressed disappointment that they had decided to go to the media before
approaching the management of the school for clarifications on the issue,
which according to him, was a common practice in schools in Blantyre.
The headmaster clarified that since 1958, when the school was established,
its rule had been that students should speak only English within school
premises.
He explained further that the reason was not that English was better than
Afrikaan spoken in South Africa, Chichewa, French or Italian, but that it
was a common language which, more importantly, did not exclude anybody.
But some students said they would love to speak Chichewa freely but the
rule forbade them from doing so.
However, a human rights activists, Mrs. Festus Chirwa from Women's Lobby
and Rights Group, said the move by the school was good as it improved the
learning process of English.
She said that every school had its own rules, therefore parents must follow
them especially when they promised to abide by them.
Chirwa challenged the parents to choose between allowing their children to
stay or to leave the school silently. "As a human rights activist, I
support the use of English in schools," said Chirwa.
Linguists believe at least Chichewa, which is also widely spoken in Zambia
as well as Zimbabwe, should be encouraged just as Kiswahili is in Eastern
Africa.
This view is supported by parliamentarians who think Chichewa should be
spoken alongside English during the business of the National Assembly, for
more clarity on issues of national importance.
At a workshop which was funded by a German aid agency GTZ Malawi, titled
"Bridge Building" in the capital Lilongwe, members of parliament and civil
society came up with ten resolutions in which usage of Chichewa language
during parliament sessions was recommended.
However, the constitution of Malawi is silent over usage of Chichewa
language in parliament.
According to the Director of Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI),
Nandini Patel, who is also lecturer at Chancellor College of the University
of Malawi, there is a stereotypical problem that grips the society of
today, that one who communicates in vernacular language is not educated and
that most of the parliamentarians are used to speaking English during their
debates.
Reported by Hamilton Vokhiwa
Plans Underway To Expand Bilingual Primary Education
OUAGADOUGOU (AANA) May 26 - Education experts in Burkina Faso have called
for nation-wide implementation of bilingual education in the country.
They have accordingly urged the government to work out a strategy and a
plan of action for introducing use of local as well as foreign languages in
all schools.
"We are going to create adequate conditions for a geographical and
linguistic extension of the bilingual approach, but we are not going to
force people to accept it," Minister for Basic Education and Literacy,
Mathieu Ouedraogo, responded at the end of a three-day workshop (May 8-10).
According to statistics of an experimental phase of the system in 1994, 85
percent of children in Class Six in bilingual primary schools pass their
certificate exams, while the national average is 62 percent.
"The fact that a school is using a language mastered by the children,
accelerates the apprenticeship and makes easy the comprehension of what is
taught," explained Paul Ilboudo, chairman of Oeuvre Suisse d'Entraide
Ouvrihre, a non-governmental organisation promoting bilingual education in
the country.
The system is also expected to create an increase in school enrolment rate
in rural areas, where intake is often as low as 12 percent. Current
national school enrolment rate is 40 percent. The government is intending
to attain a rate of 70 percent by 2010 through a 10-year plan, launched
last year.
Reported by Brahima Ouedraogo
Striking Teachers Vow To Continue Pushing For Better Pay
HARARE (AANA) May 26 - A national strike by Zimbabwean teachers, lecturers
and other staff within the Ministry of Education, is threatening to cripple
the country's education sector.
Teachers have been on strike since schools opened on May 8, to push the
Public Service Commission (PSC) to address disparities between their
salaries and other civil servants.
A labour court on May 19 ruled that the government should be given 21 days
to resolve the teachers' grievances.
Teachers here earn an average Z$75 000 (1US$ = Z$824) a month, while other
civil servants earn twice as much.
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) is calling for a major
overhaul of the teachers' pay package, saying each should get a minimum of
Z$258 000 per month.
PTUZ has also called on their members to honour the court's decision that
they return to work, but it added that they would then embark on a go-slow.
The union's general secretary, Raymond Majongwe, said: "The Labour Court's
ruling is inconsequential because we are not prepared to wait 21 days of
further marginalisation and pauperisation."
The latest teachers strike is the second in about six months after a
similar strike last year, which threatened to bring the country's first
locally set examination to a halt.
The strike comes against a background of a sharp rise in the cost of
living. Inflation figures released recently showed that the year-on-year
rate of inflation for April was at 269, up from 228 in March.
Reported by Namutatanga Makombe
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