By Mduduzi Khathwane (Intern)
MBABANE – SiSwati Subject Teachers Association (ESSTA) is working to make siSwati a stronger part of school learning. This week, they held special events to talk about teaching in siSwati and promoting the language among students.
On Tuesday, ESSTA held a workshop with the School of Valley. Teachers came together to talk about siSwati Paper 3. They shared ideas on how to help students do better in the subject.
On Wednesday, the team went to Malunge High School in Nyakeni for a Culture Day. The event was full of traditional events like Umtsimba, Kubutseka, Kuteka and have have traditional foods. ESSTA wants more schools to celebrate Culture Days to help students feel proud of their culture and language.
The association hopes Eswatini will one day teach school subjects in siSwati, like other countries teach in their mother tongues. They gave examples like China, where many children learn in their local language. ESSTA believes that using siSwati in subjects like Maths and Biology will help students understand better.
On February they payed a visit to the Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini in his Office and spoke about the need to protect and grow the siSwati language. He said Prime Minister supports the idea of collecting siSwati words and making them available online.
In addition, the Prime Minister thanked ESSTA, Macmillan, and Imisebe Publishing Company for working together to promote siSwati. He said It is important for children in Eswatini, especially those in English speaking schools, to learn and speak siSwati.
According to Machawe Dlamini President of ESSTA and Siswati Teacher at Bahia High School “We want our children to speak siSwati with pride,” he said.
He further on shared ESSTA’s future goals which include helping more students archive higher credits in siSwati. Last year in EGCSE and IGCSE they had high credits.
Eswtini SiSwati Subject Teachers Association further encourages schools to host Culture Days and give more attention to siSwati in class. They believe that language is part of identity, and they want every child in Eswatini to grow up proud of speaking siSwati.
