Please don't shoot me people but will Kiswahili really have value in the future? Would you rather your kid learns swahili or Chinese, Spanish or French? I know what my answer is, venacular, English and one or two foreign languages unless he/she is going to work in Mombasa or Dar.

@2012, Kiswahili ni lugha muhimu sana. Inatumika kote katika nchi wanachama wa Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki.

problem is the kiswahili they are taught is not the kiswahili we speak. Pick up any supposedly simple story book in kiswahili and if you go beyond page 3 without reaching for a kamusi, then you teach swahili.
E.g. Book titled "Pupa za Bupa" (3e)(I couldnt even figure out what the title meant)
On page 1: Tulikuwa tunakula chajio wakati baba alipokuja na habari hii nzuri.
i dont know if i eat chajio but i suspect i do.

Yes mathematic and english are very useful to me. Biology and Chemistry just wasted my time, thanks God they are optional subjects now. As for Kiswahili, I couldn't even read the damn Kinjeketile book but I managed to get an A.
All I'm saying is people need not hide behind the illusion of identity in Kiswahili, my boss is from here and can speak fluent Engilsh, French and Spanish, swahili he straggles with but I'm sure he wouldn't excange any of the others for swahili if the offer was put on the table, question is, would you?

So why do they still teach Latin in some British schools? Nobody uses that language anymore!!

I repeat: Education is not just about what you can do with what you are taught; it is MORE about what it does to you... i.e., your thought processes, your style of reasoning, your emotions... your personality...

Some one once said that the "medium is the message". The fact that you have to keep a Kamusi at hand to read and understand a story book makes you realise that whenever there is a difficulty, you can always get help by doing a little research. You don't have to be like the annoying wazuans who are always asking for links whenever there is a breaking story...yet there is google and bing etc!