Transition of the medium of instruction from English to Kiswahili in Tanzanian primary schools: Challenges from the mathematics classroom

Abstract

Tanzania, along with Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, belongs to the East African community, a regional intergovernmental organization that aspires to lead the five countries into a political federation (East African community website). Although Kiswahili is widely spoken in all these East African member states, it is only in Tanzania that the language has been given the status of both the national language and that of the medium of instruction in all basic education institutions.