WHO DOES SISWATI REALLY HELP?

Sir,

I am shocked that many Swazis are still ignorant of the results of this extreme obsession with the siSwati language. Besides the obvious credit in Siswati as a subject, what else does our mother tongue offer towards our future as the Swazi youth? In fact, siSwati is given too much attention, more than it deserves to be honest since it is never used as a means of selection in our tertiary institutions. We cannot even use siSwati as a medium for international trade.

As a country that believes in education, we should by now be well aware of the effects of the dominance of siSwati over English, especially when considering the number of failures resulting from poor performance in English. Are we not then emphasising on the wrong language that offers little benefits for our society?

It is true that as a nation we should safeguard our mother tongue from fragmentation. However, if our mother tongue cannot  connect us to the global society that controls world economies it does not serve our national interests but the interests of the few that are already drunk with success and are using culture as a form of entertainment as opposed to a way of life. I am afraid culture is used to divert our focus from our real life problems that include poverty, illiteracy and disease.

Let us not be carried away by nationalism and forget the meaning of life.

Concerned

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