The Minister of Education, Games and Sports Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni has proposed a move to see that Science in primary level is taught in local languages, as this will help ease the understanding of the subject by the learners.
“Teaching science in local language will make sense to us and we will become transformational when we really get involved in teaching science in mother tongue at primary level,”
Ms Museveni also said since the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a new normal educationalists [should] extend the expertise in open distance and e-learning beyond Makerere University to benefit the other higher education institutions in need of this knowledge and expertise.
Mr Henry Busulwa, the Principal Investigator of the research findings on Inter-disciplinary Enhancement of Science Education in the Uganda Primary Thematic Curriculum, said more effort needs to be put in to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engierring, and Mathematics) subjects “since our scientists are still few.”
He added: “We investigated some concepts of learning in terms of local languages and how they can be used to instruct science with the use of folklore like telling stories ,songs, and poems to the lower level.”
Mr Busulwa also said the findings suggested that science should be taught from Primary One as a separate subject. He said the delay to start teaching science impacts on the learner’s choice as they progress.
