By Françios Kwatani

Education rights activist Benedicto Kondowe says government should engage all stakeholders in the education sector in examining the cost implication of introduction of foreign languages in the country’s school curricula.

Kondowe, who is also Civil Society Education Coalition executive director, made the remarks following President Lazarus Chakwera’s proposal to introduce languages like Portuguese, Swahili and French in the school syllabus.

President Chakwera noted that having these languages in the country’s schools will ease communication when conducting trade activities and also strengthen interaction with other countries.

In an interview with YFM Online, Kondowe said the decision should be subjected to public scrutiny in order to consider the value addition of the move as money will be needed to fund the expansion.

Kondowe added that adopting such languages will require production of books, hiring and training teachers in schools which might be a burden on taxpayers.

He strongly advised the government to weigh the outcomes that the society will achieve despite the African Union-AU prioritizing Portuguese and Swahili as some of the official languages utilized in the AU meetings.