First pave the path to mother-tongue education in SA with some translations

Recent articles about Stellenbosch University, like “Black Students Feel Unwelcome at Stellenbosch University: Khampepe Report” (DD Nov 8), raise some unanswered questions.

The main one is, if Stellenbosch is such a racist institution, why do black students choose to go there? University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape and Cape Peninsula University of Technology are just three of the alternatives available, and that’s without considering the other eight provinces.

When you register at any university, it is for you to be able to cope with the medium of instruction of that university. South Africans studying medicine in Cuba have to become fluent in Spanish.

Founded as an Afrikaans-medium university, Stellenbosch has now embraced multilinguism as far as is practical, according to its website.

Practical problems include a lack of study materials in the African languages, a lack of educators equipped to deliver the courses in those languages and the economic impracticality of any institution catering for every language spoken by a multilingual country.

These problems are also found at historically Englishmedium universities including the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University and historically black universities such as the University of Fort Hare and Walter Sisulu University.

Post-apartheid SA is 28 years old. I know professors who received their Phds by age 28, so there has been more than sufficient time to make substantial advances in addressing the practical challenges.

One thousand years ago all Western education was in Latin, until academics began transcribing into European languages and creating mother tongue education of a comparable standard to Latin.

In SA history, English ruled supreme until Afrikaners translated official documents into their own language and built the schools and universities needed to provide Afrikaansmedium education at least equal to the then existing Englishmedium education.

Until African-language speakers adopt the same handwork and dedication to their own languages, mother-tongue education in SA is a pipe dream. Dave Rankin, Cambridge