Missed point on language

JONATHAN Schrire (“English is language of jobs, not colonialism”, Cape Argus, February 27) is missing the point of (“Country is caught up in rip tide of English”, Cape Argus, February 22).

Parents of children whose mother tongue is not English prefer their children to be taught in English because of the current situation that prevails in South Africa, which is a direct consequence of colonialism and the reluctance of our government to rectify the situation.

The academic from Rhodes argues that African languages should not be viewed as a problem, but as a language of resource. Sadly, too little has been done by the current government to change the status quo of African languages.

Nothing on the scale done by the nationalist government who elevated Afrikaans into a language of resource when it came to power in 1948.

Over a short period of time Afrikaans was developed into a fully-fledged academic language that enabled universities to produce graduates who studied all their subjects including science and maths in Afrikaans.

This was only possible by rapidly increasing the vocabulary of Afrikaans with academic terms already used in English.

Numerous respected studies have confirmed the benefits of being taught in one’s mother tongue. Sadly, our African learners do not benefit from it, since the rug is pulled out from under them as soon as they reach school, except for a few districts like Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape where learners are being taught subjects in their mother tongue.

The problem for successful indigenous mother-tongue learners from these districts are essentially simply deferred and arise once they reach university, since not a single university in our country allows learners to pursue studies in the sciences in their mother tongue.

Sadly, due to these barriers, learners using indigenous languages in our country do not benefit from receiving education in their mother tongue. With the current status and traces of colonialism, the learners are left high and dry with no solution in sight.

The status quo where English is preferred by most businesses will change once African languages reach maturity and fulfil their rightful status in our society. What is required is for our government to make a concerted effort to ensure that indigenous languages are developed into a language of resource.

The reasons provided above and not that English is the language of jobs, are the reasons why parents prefer their kids to be taught in English.