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      <h1 class="">Schools face language problems - report</h1>
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                                                    May 9 2013 at 09:50am <br>
                          By SAPA
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                                                                                                            <p class="">Johannesburg - Schools
 are plagued by language problems with at least 30 percent of Grade One 
pupils not being taught in their home language, it was reported on 
Thursday. </p> 
                                                            <p class="">“When learners do not speak the 
language of instruction, they find learning difficult and academic 
achievement is undermined,” a national education evaluation and 
development unit study found, according to a report in The Times. </p> 
                                                            <p class="">The study, of pupils' first three 
years at school, also found significant differences between spoken 
African languages and their written forms. </p>As a result, pupils were often unable to understand national tests, the newspaper reported.  
                                                            <p class="">The education department's policy allows for students to be taught in an African language only from Grade One to Grade Three.  </p> 
                                                            <p class="">Researchers were reportedly 
concerned that the government's new policy of teaching English as an 
additional first language from Grade One to Grade Three was not being 
properly implemented. </p> 
                                                                                                                                                            <p class="">The 
English policy was introduced in 2012 to make sure Grade One  pupils 
were well-grounded in English so they could cope with the all-English 
curriculum from Grade Four. </p> 
                                                            <p class="">However, many teachers did not have the required proficiency in English to teach it effectively from Grade One. </p> 
                                                            <p class="">According to The Times, researchers found that some parents were  insisting that teaching be exclusively in English. - Sapa </p> 
                                                                          
                                  
                  
                                                  

        <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/schools-face-language-problems-report-1.1512859#.UY0IdkrYGSo">http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/schools-face-language-problems-report-1.1512859#.UY0IdkrYGSo</a><br>
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