Where is this destination that our children should be "taken" by subjects learned in school?

Ngalakaa ngai. Ngalaka ngai likambo nasali yo nayebi tina te

You sound like someone who struggled mightily with Kiswahili in secondary school and it still gives you nightmares

Kiswahili is a treasure. It did wonders in uniting the Tanzanian people. In fact not only should it be promoted in Kenya, it should be aggressively promoted abroad. And it starts by having people who can speak eloquently.

There are two Kiswahili dialect spoken in Somalia (Bajun and Bravanese), another one in Congo(Kingwana) and even as far south as Mozambique and Northern Zambia. This needs to be promoted and encouraged further through cultural exchanges, radio, TV, music etc.

In other words we need more people publicly speaking or singing fluently or eloquently.

If not for music, Kiswahili would be more widely spoken than Lingala in the Congo. Lingala became more popular because it was the language of music.

speak for yourself... this is such an assumption that is negated by most of my agemates.

Ngalakaa ngai. Ngalaka ngai likambo nasali yo nayebi tina te
And no, its not about yours truly, its all about our education choices as a country.

Well identity – I have no issue with that, but how does that go away if we don’t teach it in school beyond class three.

Lets also examine the correlation between the Swahili we learn in School and the Swahili we speak in our common day to day life.

For illustration, think of a guy in Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale, Voi, Malindi, Kericho or a guy you know personally that dropped in class five – is his Swahili any different from that of an average Kenyan around him - read you the schooled.
We can milk the sentimentality about identity as much as we wish, but reality on the ground is - for an average Kenyan graduate or form four leaver, their Swahili as used in day to day life is horrible at best, whereas their Kamba, bukusu Kikuyu, dholuo, Kimasai etc is flawless.

I bet we have all listened to our elite being interviewed life on radio or Television in Kiswahili - especially BBC – it comes off like torture to them – as a matter of fact a good part of their speech constitutes of English because of want of their Swahili.

It makes sense to unclog our education system of subjects that we really don’t need in the system – for it doesn’t serve us any less well even from outside of the system.

And lets be practical good people of Kenya, one can not in good conscience draw parallels between critical and integral linchpin of academics such as Maths and a contraption of a language that came into being not too long ago and is regarded as a second language by the vast majority of those who speak it.

The truth is, policy on which subject are to grace our schools is drawn by adults in Nairobi.

In my intro I suggested that those keen to pursue the subject have that opportunity open to them, but of course with counsel and guidance as to where they should expect to go with their fancy.

I agree sentimentality/pride is indeed a value, but how far are we willing to go with it vis a vis practicality and demands of todays trends in life.

As a third world economy what priorities do we wish to take!

I think the problem is exactly the opposite of what Ngalaka is pointing out here. Many people in Kenya speak Kiswahili as their native language. It may not be their first but it flows more freely in conversations about everyday events. I would argue that Kiswahili is not taught enough so that more knowledge is not assimilated because being taught in English it is perceived as foreign and therefore not relevant to most people.

People live and think and feel in a language. I think it would be more beneficial to bring world knowledge into the language rather than ask people to leave their language so that they can acquire the knowledge. The Japanese and Chinese have brought science and technology into their language they did not learn another language in order to learn science and technology.

Ngalaka, actually the problem of us having bad Kiswahili is not unique to Kiswahili. We have a mix of languages and end up having a bit of each but not fluent in any.

Our English is laden with Kiswahili words and conversely our Kiswahili is like English. Si you jua what I'm saying?

And no, Kiswahili has ceased being a second language. It is the first language children speak across social classes. Those in deep rural areas are the only ones learning mother tongue first. Infact, I see local African languages dying with the preference by parents for Kiswahili.

I do not think there's any harm in learning more of this beautiful language. There's no joy in not knowing

so? lets just drop it - right?

I have only 1 neighbour whose kid spoke English as first language. The rest speak Kiswahili. Not their mother tongues

Now for that 1 child born into Queen's language, she's had to learn Kiswahili. Coz most kids speak Swa.(I obviiusly dont live in Karen/Lavi/Westi...)

if the schools do not see the need for it, I would think they are better placed on matters schooling, but in all honesty I don't see the academic benefit of teaching kiswahili, we do not do business or official correspondence in the same, our institutions of higher learning do not publish in kiswahili, if it has to be included then the best we can do is have it as an optional subject, eitherway the way the curriculum is set, its the syntax that is taught, a kid needs to understand the language before the kiswahili teacher comes into the view.