SADTU TEACHERS REJECT DUAL LANGUAGE CLASSES

TEACHERS at a school in Limpopo are refusing to teach subjects in both English and Afrikaans.

Yesterday, a South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Matome Raphasha said they called on the department to intervene after receiving complaints from teachers at the Westenburg Secondary School in Polokwane.

Raphasha said the school previously had separate classes accommodating English- and Afrikaansspeaking pupils. However he said this changed when the principal merged the classes forcing teachers to use both languages even though they were only proficient in one.

“How can you expect someone to teach in a language they don ’ t understand? ” Raphasha said.

“Teachers were being forced to teach in English for 30 minutes and Afrikaans for 30 minutes.”

Yesterday Sadtu staged demonstrations in different parts of the province in support of those teachers and also as part of the union ’ s mission for wage increases.

Raphasha said they were also calling for the removal of the district circuit manager in Polokwane whom they blame for encouraging racism.

“We are seeing racist elements in some schools where there are mostly white pupils and very few blacks,” he said. He said some schools deliberately excluded blacks by teaching only in Afrikaans.

Raphasha said they were also concerned that some former model C schools were gradually doing away with the teaching of indigenous African languages.

Department of education spokesman Paena Galane said all issues raised by the union were being addressed.