The European Union has advised the Patriotic Front government to be very careful with their newly introduced local languages as a medium of instruction for pupils from grade 1 to 4.
EU Head of Delegation to Zambia Gilles Hervio said the policy if not abandoned had the potential to fan tribal hatred as Zambia could not teach through all the 72 languages recognized.
Hervio said there could be resentment built in those who were forced to learn in languages other than their own as a compulsory undertaking.
He said that there was need for Zambia to drift towards unity rather than fragmenting the already highly diversified population.
The EU head noted that the challenges have already manifested themselves where children and parents had protested the newly introduced policy.
President Michael Sata recently dreamt up the policy of local languages as a medium of instruction without clearly defined boundaries of which language should be used where.
Some schools have no materials and human resource to implement the policy while in some fairly sensitive regions like North Western Province the policy has sparked protests.
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