English Medium Instruction, an Impediment to Educational Achievement and Social Justice Education in Primary Schools: A Sociological Perspective

ABSTRACT
This article is poised to explore English Medium Instruction (EMI)
and its potential to impede social justice education in primary schools
in Chivi District (Zimbabwe). The article specifically discusses the
impact that English as the medium of instruction has on primary Grade
3 learners in Chivi District and the implications it has on fostering
social justice education in the education sector in general. This
conclusion is because Grade 3 learners in Zimbabwe are introduced
to EMI for the first time at the Grade 3 level, a situation that reveals
social injustice in education. In this article, learners exhibited a
number of vices as a result of EMI, for instance, early immersion and
poor academic performance, among others. The article falls within the
qualitative approach, where interviews, focus group discussions, and
document analysis were used as data generation methods. A total of 46
participants were purposely selected and were the data sources for this
article. The collected data was useful to find out to what degree EMI
champions educational achievement and fosters equity and equality in
the primary schools. Some of the findings of the article are slowness
in thinking, experiencing two second languages, low self-esteem,
language attrition, and English as the language of unity in the classroom,
among many others. In light of the findings, the article suggests that
the use of ILs as the medium of instruction at the primary school level
needs immediate attention for social justice education to be a reality.