African languages must take their rightful place in our schools
It is pleasing to see that African languages are finally taking their place in the sun as a critical component in the educational sphere. In 2017, we implemented the incremental introduction of African languages programme. This is a priority programme to promote social cohesion in our society. Furthermore, it seeks to promote and develop previously marginalised official African languages as espoused in the provisions of the constitution and National Development Plan (NDP).
The next frontier of uplifting African languages is to transform them into languages of learning and teaching. It is a fact that English continues to dominate the basic education arena as a medium of instruction and language of commerce and diplomacy. Thus, we have resolved to launch a national mother tongue-based bilingual education programme to upgrade African languages into the medium of instruction for maths, science and technology, and other critical subjects.
We must not underestimate the importance of mother tongue instruction in education and society. As early as the early 1990s, the founding father of the new SA, president Nelson Mandela, opined: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
We have our work cut out for us in this regard. We call upon linguists, African language practitioners, researchers and material developers to snatch this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a critical role in a national endeavour to allow our learners to be taught in the languages of their “heart”, not “head”.
Language is a powerful tool of exclusion and domination — political, economic, and social. Therefore, colonial languages in basic education perpetuate the marginalisation of indigenous languages and people, even after uhuru. It is untenable that in the 21st century we continue to teach our children in foreign languages while imparting knowledge about foreign concepts; this stifles understanding of the interconnected world, instead of enabling it.
Our knowledge production industry is still dominated mainly by the foreign languages of English and French. We will intensify our efforts to bring indigenous African languages to the centre of the basic education sector as one of the tools required for improving learning outcomes. Our endeavours as education mandarins are to tinker with the status quo. Thus the elevation of African languages is a necessary policy shift to improve learner outcomes and fast-track the decolonisation of education at home and in the rest of Africa.
As a primary language of teaching and learning, English is a relic from our colonial past and must change as part of our broader decolonisation project. Moreover, epistemological access to the curriculum remains the driving principle behind the elevation of African languages into languages of commerce, diplomacy and learning and teaching.
Most importantly, the NDP urges us to allow learners’ home language to be used as languages of learning and teaching for more extended periods and English to be introduced much later.
As part of the second-decade implementation of the NDP, we must today, not in the future, develop African languages or mother tongue instruction as an integral part of education, science and technology.
Besides the NDP, our legal framework already provides for all local languages to be used to advance learning opportunities, and officialdom must promote, not hinder, such developments.
The constitution says everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in our educational institutions. The National Education Policy Act of 1996 says every learner has the right to be instructed in the language of their choice. It also allows every person to use their language and participate in the cultural life of their choice within any educational institution.
The South African Schools Act of 1996 states clearly that no form of discrimination must be used in determining school language policy. Due to the existing legal and policy framework, there’s no need for new legislation to affect mother tongue and multilingual learning and teaching.
Meanwhile, we are buoyed by the runaway success of the Eastern Cape mother tongue-based education programme and we are ready to take it to new heights. It all began in 2010, when the Eastern Cape language in education policy unit was established with a mandate to develop African languages as languages of learning and teaching, and for the teaching of mathematics, science and technology.
The policy unit conceptualised and launched the pioneering mother tongue education programme to use isiXhosa and Sesotho to teach mathematics, science and technology.
Last year, the total number of schools implementing mother tongue education reached 2,015, and is likely to reach 2,580 this year. So far, the Eastern Cape department of education has capacitated a whopping 2,520 officials and educators in bilingual and multilingual teaching strategies. This mother tongue instruction has delivered substantial educational benefits over and above political considerations.
For instance, in the 2019 June standard exams, grade 6 learners in mother tongue education schools achieved a significantly higher average of 78% in maths, science and technology, while the English-only group attained an average of 50%.
Research has shown that having a strong mother tongue foundation leads to a better understanding of the curriculum and a more positive attitude towards school. The children enjoy school more, and they feel more at home. Ultimately pupils tend to show increased self-esteem and a better grasp of complex concepts.
In our local context, the issue of multilingual education based on the mother tongue is critical as we have multiple official languages and a plethora of previously marginalised languages. Our task is to develop official South African languages equitably and foster respect for all languages used in the country, including South African Sign Language and Afrikaans.
We are working with the National Education Collaboration Trust to scale up mother tonguebased bilingual education. The programme will primarily target schools in rural areas where learners stand to benefit the most by using their home language to learn complex concepts. We are also working with the Pan South African Language Board, publishers and universities to create learning materials and build professional capacity among teachers. We haven’t determined the national rollout plan yet, but we are working with provincial education departments to develop province-specific implementation plans. We are working flat-out with our social partners, including the department of sport, arts & culture for corpus development.
We salute the Eastern Cape education department, its language experts and political leadership for the work done in the mother tongue policy area. We acknowledge the job already done by different provinces. Learning from the fine example set by the Eastern Cape, our learners and teachers deserve no less.
In conclusion, we acknowledge the importance of English and will continue to strengthen its teaching across the curriculum and in all grades. As we know, English remains a compulsory subject for all the grades in all schools in SA.
The next frontier of uplifting African languages is to transform them into languages of learning and teaching