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<h1 class="">Maties' change in language policy a 'bold move' - SRC</h1>
<span id="spnDate" class="">2015-11-13 18:31</span>
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<p class="">Tammy Petersen and Jenni Evans, News24</p>
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<p>Cape Town - Stellenbosch
University’s (SU) “bold move towards a truly transformed and inclusive”
institution is a historical step towards opening the doors of education
to all, its Student Representative Council (SRC) said on Friday.</p><p>“[This
is] a stance that [is the] first of many steps in moving SU towards a
more inclusive future. We are proud to have stood together with student
movements such as Open Stellenbosch, Sasco and Daso to ensure that no
student is disadvantaged at this university,” said SRC spokesperson,
James de Villiers.</p><p>The university earlier announced that all
learning at the institution would soon be in English as it is the common
language in the country. The rector's management team on the
university's language policy also said in a statement that “substantial
academic support” would be provided in other South African languages,
according to students' needs.</p><p>De Villiers said the SRC was “impressed by the announcement” and the university’s “resolve to take transformational steps”. </p><p>“The
language policy has been one of the high priority issues of this SRC
and we have taken several decisions over the past two months to support
our belief in an inclusive SU. </p><p>“In line with the announcement by
the rector’s management team, we have already accepted a motion in a SRC
meeting to substantiate breakthroughs made by the students
collectively, requiring all university residences to communicate
primarily in English." </p><p>De Villiers said the SRC commends Open Stellenbosch for the role it played.</p><p><strong>A continuous call from students</strong></p><p>“Had
it not been for the continuous call from students, led by Open
Stellenbosch, the necessity of acceleration in transformation would not
have been prioritised.”</p><p>However, he said the SRC was concerned about the sentiments raised by members of the Convocation about the announcement. </p><p>“It
is not a university’s job to protect any language, but rather to ensure
the best education for its students. We believe this move by management
tries to achieve this. This decision isn’t about the marginalisation of
any group, but rather about ensuring that all students are on an equal
footing when they arrive at this university.”</p><p>Lobby group
AfriForum is also livid. Deputy spokesperson, Alana Bailey, said the
proposal disregarded almost half of the Western Cape's residents
who were Afrikaans speaking.</p><p>Branding the proposal ''ideological
obligingness, or serious ignorance", Bailey warned students currently
studying in Afrikaans that they might not be able to finish their
degrees in Afrikaans. </p><p>"According to the census of 2011, Afrikaans
is the mother tongue of 49.6% of residents in the Western Cape, against
24.7% isiXhosa mother tongue speakers and only 20.2% English mother
tongue speakers," she said in a statement.</p><p>"Students who wish to
study in English have three unilingual English campuses to choose from
in the immediate vicinity. Already discrimination takes place against
the 49.6% Afrikaans speakers on the basis of language by only offering
them partial access to Afrikaans education at [SU]. </p>"The
statement makes it clear the US management cannot even be trusted to
maintain the partial presentation, but wants to make an effort to
further marginalise Afrikaans and discriminating even more drastically
against Afrikaans speaking students [sic].”<br><br><a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/maties-change-in-language-policy-a-bold-move-src-20151113">http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/maties-change-in-language-policy-a-bold-move-src-20151113</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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