肯尼亚的小学教育语言水平下降

Results for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations are headline news Thursday in Nairobi, showing top academic performances. Amid the jubilation, however, there are concerns about Kenyan students' declining performances in English and Ki'Swahili, as compared to other African countries. Also noteworthy - the fourth-best student in the country is a refugee from South Sudan.

星期四，在非洲国家肯尼亚，小学教育毕业考核的结果成了报纸的头版头条新闻，考试成绩最佳的学生都榜上有名。不过，在庆祝之余，也有 一些担忧，那就是和非洲其他地区的学生比起来，肯尼亚学生的英语和斯瓦希里语成绩不太好。与此同时，大家还都注意到，在这次考试中名列第四名的学生是一位来自南苏丹的难民的孩子。

Minister of Education Sam Ongeri was quoted as saying he thinks the primary school system’s relatively poor performance in Kenya’s two official languages, Ki’Swahili and English, is due to Kenyans’ heavy use of a language called “sheng” - slang terms especially popular among urban youth.

肯尼亚的教育部长说，依他所见，肯尼亚小学生在斯瓦希里和英语这两门官方语言的考核中，成绩相对来讲不是很好，主要是因为肯尼亚人大量使用一种非官方的方言土语，而这种方言土语在城市地区的青少年当中，使用率尤其频繁。

Sara Ruto is regional manager of Uwezo East Africa, a program to improve literacy and numeracy among children in Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda. She thinks students’ poor literacy performance is not due so much to sheng as it is to teachers using Ki’Swahili, English and their mother tongues all at the same time.

塞若·卢托是“东非作为”项目的地区负责人，这一项目旨在提高肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚和乌干达这几个国家儿童的语文和算数水平。卢托女士认为，肯尼亚的小学生在语言测试方面成绩不好的主要原因，不是说孩子们用当地的方言土语过多了，而是因为老师在教课的时候，斯瓦希里、英语、以及当地的土话，都一块儿说。

“Nobody is paying close attention to teaching whatever skills they [have], be they oral [or] written. So you’ll find a person will start speaking a sentence in English or Ki’Swahili, maybe pick a few words, [and] complete the sentence in another language. It means that we need to invest more in teaching a whole understanding, comprehension, of a language in its totality,” said Ruto.

卢托女士说：“没有人在听说读写方面，只是留心教授一种语言，不管是说，还是写。往往是一句话里面带有好几种不同的文字，英语和斯瓦希里语都搀杂在一块儿，没有说一句话用一种语言说完的，这一个字儿，那一个字儿的，用不同的语言给连接起来。我觉得，我们需要投入到完整地教授一种语言，从头到尾地去理解、认识一种语言，应该从这儿开始。”

Tanzania takes top spot

Last year, the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality, or SACMEQ, released a study ranking Kenya fifth out of 15 African countries on students’ reading ability. Top performers were Tanzania, Seychelles and Mauritius, while the bottom scorers were Zambia and Malawi.

去年，“南非和东非教育质量观察”出台了一份研究报告，并把各个国家进行了排名。在非洲地区的15个国家里学生的阅读水平方面，肯尼亚名列第五。排名在前面的是坦桑尼亚、塞舌尔、以及毛里求斯。排在最后的是赞比亚和马拉维。

Uwezo’s Ruto explains why she thinks Tanzania is tops compared to Kenya.

“东非作为”项目的卢托女士对坦桑尼亚如何能排在肯尼亚前面，给出了她的解释。

“Their system has paid attention to Ki’Swahili. I think that if you have grasped the skill in one language, it is easier for you to grasp in another," she said. "In Tanzania, there are so many community newspapers. Ki’Swahili is spoken in most places - at home and then again at school. And so you will see there is a little bit more continuity. And also, the skill of reading: you can find it in many more places.”

她说：“在坦桑尼亚，他们对斯瓦希里语很重视。我觉得，真正掌握了一种语言之后，再学、再掌握另外一种语言，会相对容易。在坦桑尼亚，有很多地方报纸，而且无论是在家里还是学校，大家都讲斯瓦希里语，所以语言上没有中断。在阅读方面，阅读材料也比比皆是。”But some students still excel. Results of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations were on newspaper front pages Thursday all over Kenya, with pictures of students who earned top marks.

不过，即便是肯尼亚，也有一些学生成绩依然很优秀。星期四，在小学毕业成绩考核中名列前茅的学生，不光名字登在了肯尼亚全国各地报纸的头版，这些孩子的照片也都登上去了。

South Sudan refugee student shines

One picture stood out in particular: that of South Sudanese refugee Kuol Tito Yak, who lived in Kakuma Refugee Camp until joining Uthiru Genesis Primary school in Standard Three. He scored fourth overall, and the first in Kiambu County.

其中一个孩子的照片尤其突出；之所以突出，是因为这个孩子是来自南苏丹的难民的孩子，他的名字叫库尔，长期住在当地的一个难民营里，直到小学三年级才进到当地的一所小学上学。这个叫库尔的孩子在肯尼亚的全国考试当中，名列第四，而且是所在地的头一名。

Lual Dau is head of the Southern Sudanese Students’ Association in Kenya. He said, although he does not know Kuol personally, South Sudanese take education very seriously.

卢尔是肯尼亚境内南苏丹学生联合会的负责人。他说，虽然不认识库尔，但是，来自南苏丹的学生，对教育都很重视。

“We are going to reform the new country [South Sudan] - it will be through education, of what we learned. That is what we can take home because there is nothing in Southern Sudan,” said Lual.

卢尔说：“我们肩负着要重建国家的使命，而且只能是通过教育、只能是通过我们所学的重建国家。南苏丹现在一穷二白，我们能带回去的，只有我们在这儿学到的。”

The results highlighted other education trends. The top two students were from the capital Nairobi. Coastal area schools performed poorly. All top 10 positions were taken by students studying at private schools, and there are almost as many girls as boys in the primary school system overall.

肯尼亚的这次考试结果同时也突出了地方教育的其他一些走向。比如说，名列第一和第二的学生都来自首都内罗毕，而沿海地区的学生，成绩则没有那么好。另外，名列前十名的学生，都是私立学校的学生。还有就是，在小学里念书的孩子，差不多是男女各半。