Parents’ Awareness and Support to Learners’ Literacy Acquisition. The Context of Mother Tongue Language

Parent’s awareness and support to learners’ literacy acquisition has been found significant to literacy acquisition by contributing to school readiness and literacy achievement. It is within the framework of 2007 Mother tongue education policy in Uganda that this qualitative study aimed at analyzing parents’ awareness and support of the mother tongue-based language education policy and its contribution to learners’ literacy acquisition. Data were collected through indepth individual interviews with 12 teachers, four (4) principals of schools and twelve (12) parents. Data were systematically analyzed basing on Moustaka’s (1994) transcendental phenomenological approach. The findings revealed relatively mixed reactions on parents’ awareness and support of the mother tongue-based teaching policy, their responses indicated their awareness and the useful support they extended to their children in an effort to promote their literacy in the Luganda language. Thus, this implies that there should be a close interrelationship between the home and the school in the design of programs that support parents’ activities and decision making, while implementing the mother tongue language policy to optimally benefit the learners.