Literacy Skills of Kiswahili Speaking Children in Rural Tanzania

The role of home environment The context of this thesis is the primary school in Tanzania. Alarming statistics reveal problems in achievement, promotion and drop-out rates all over the country. The reasons are many and complex and can partly be traced to problems in learning to read and write. Almost one-fifth of the children fail in an examination mostly measuring reading and writing skills at the end of grade four. About twenty percent of the children who complete seven years of primary education cannot read grade two level Kiswahili. Very little research exists about the children’s reading and writing difficulties in Tanzania. Also, little is known about the role of the home environment for children’s reading and writing development. The overall aim of the study was to investigate the role of home environment in the development of children’s literacy skills. The writing problems and indicators for describing the living and the literacy environment were identified. The relation between home environment and reading and writing development was analyzed. Children learning to write Kiswahili, which is a consistent language, made similar spelling mistakes as children learning inconsistent languages, e.g. English. A large proportion (about one-third) of the children did not write any of the words in the test instrument correctly. Parents ’ education, house wall material, light source, and books for school subjects in the home were identified as culturally valid indicators of the home environment. Some of them also served as predictors of children’s literacy skills. Strategies promoting children’s literacy skills are proposed and concrete suggestions to policy and educational planners are given