Uganda is in serious short of teachers teaching Swahili, a language widely used in east African countries, and may recruit from Kenya, where many Swahili teachers are unemployed, local press reported on Friday.

"We want to make Kiswahili an examinable subject but we lack teachers," said Tony Mukasa, chairman of the Inter-Capital Cities Federation of Headteachers Associations of East Africa.

Uganda's Ministry of Education decided last year to include Swahili in the primary schools' curriculum, but the implementation of the decision hit a snag due to shortage of teachers.

Mukasa asked Kenya to give Uganda 300 Kiswahili teachers for a pilot project that would see the subject examined nationally, and a Kenyan education official has said that Kenya had many unemployed Kiswahili teachers, who could be sent to Uganda.

Source: Xinhua