<div dir="ltr"><h2><span itemprop="name">OPINION: Why Afrikaans doesn’t qualify for special treatment at universities </span></h2>
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<div class=""><span itemprop="author"><a href="http://ewn.co.za/Contributors/The-Conversation">The Conversation</a></span> | <abbr id="mainplaceholder_0_abbrCreateDateOpinion" class="" title="one day ago">a day ago</abbr></div>
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<p><strong>A closer look at the actual content of the constitutional right concerning language in education.</strong></p>
<p><span itemprop="articleBody"></span></p><p><em>This article first appeared on </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/free-university-education-is-not-the-route-to-social-justice-49755?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+October+27+2015+-+3706&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+October+27+2015+-+3706+CID_07cc65d467204c341828d56216a8848d&utm_source=campaign_monitor_africa" target="_blank"><em>The Conversation</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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<p>There is a fierce debate underway about the language of instruction at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Students <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-08-27-not-open-says-open-stellenbosch" target="_blank">protested</a>
throughout 2015 against the use of Afrikaans as the institution’s main
language. This culminated in the university management deciding to <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/sea-change-in-varsity-language-policies-1.1949008#.VmVxeHYrLIU" target="_blank">adopt English</a> as its primary language of instruction.</p>
<p>The Afrikaans language is widely used: it is the third <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm#afrikaans" target="_blank">most commonly</a>
spoken of South Africa’s 11 official languages, after isiZulu and
isiXhosa. But it has a torrid history. It has not, two decades after the
end of apartheid, shaken off its <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising" target="_blank">association</a> with that system. Its critics argue that it continues to have a racially exclusionary impact in, <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-04-28-op-ed-open-stellenbosch-tackling-language-and-exclusion-at-stellenbosch-university/" target="_blank">for example</a>, Afrikaans language universities. Its defenders <a href="https://www.afriforum.co.za/afrikaans-stellenbosch-university-exclusion-technique-says-nzimande/" target="_blank">strongly fight</a> for the language’s place in the South African higher education sector.</p>
<p>Those opposing the change at Stellenbosch have invoked the country’s
Constitution, saying it guarantees everyone education in their mother
tongue. This suggests that Afrikaans-speaking communities have a
constitutional right to demand tertiary education in Afrikaans. This
line of argument also holds that a public university like Stellenbosch
must maintain the privileged status of Afrikaans, or at least afford it
an equal status with English.</p>
<p>In our view, the assumptions underlying these arguments are false. This becomes apparent when examining the <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#29" target="_blank">actual content</a>
of the constitutional right concerning language in education. It is
also crucial to interpret this right in the context of the
Constitution’s overall purposes and values. </p>
<p>Section 29(1)(2) of the Constitution reads: Everyone has the right:</p>
<p style="margin-left:0.5in">- <em>to a basic education, including adult basic education; and</em></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.5in">- <em>to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.</em></p>
<p>It continues:</p>
<p><em>Everyone has the right to receive education in the official
language or languages of their choice in public educational institutions
where that education is reasonably practicable. To ensure the effective
access to, and implementation of this right, the state must consider
all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium
institutions, taking into account:</em></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.5in">- <em>equity;</em></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.5in">- <em>practicability; and</em></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.5in">- <em>the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices.</em></p>
<p>This provision does not guarantee the unqualified right to mother
tongue education. It also doesn’t preclude the existence of single
medium institutions. And, importantly, it sets out very specific factors
the state must consider in implementing the right. These are equity,
practicability and the issue of redress. </p>
<p><strong>1. Equity</strong></p>
<p>Equality and social justice are the Constitution’s founding values. It <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#9" target="_blank">defines</a> equality as including <em>the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms.</em></p>
<p>This means that the right to higher education must be equally
accessible to all without any form of unfair discrimination. It must be
delivered in a way that allows everyone to participate equally.</p>
<p>This is not only a constitutional imperative. It is core to the
teaching project of any excellent university. A diverse body of staff
and students enables exposure to a variety of world views and
experiences. It is vital to the creation of new forms of knowledge and
learning. If a language policy in any way undermines the creation of a
diverse, inclusive campus community it impoverishes a university’s
academic life.</p>
<p>Educational institutions, whether they are schools or universities,
should not function as static and insular entities. The broader
community’s interests must be taken into account, especially in light of
the Constitution’s values. The Constitutional Court made this clear in
an <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2009/32media.pdf" target="_blank">important judgment</a> about language policy in public schools.</p>
<p><strong>2. Practicability</strong></p>
<p>‘Practicability’ in tertiary education includes a range of
considerations like budgetary constraints, the availability of staff to
teach in particular languages of choice, learning infrastructure and
students’ language preferences.</p>
<p>Academics and university managements cannot simply ignore the reality
that growing numbers of students choose to be educated in English even
when this is not their mother tongue. In our discussions with students
at Stellenbosch University, two reasons have been offered in support of
English as the medium of instruction.</p>
<p>Firstly, it is a common language which enables shared communication
both in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities, residences and
campus social environments. It is also the de facto language of
business, politics, academia and law in South Africa and globally. A
solid command of English is essential to graduates’ future careers and
their ability to function effectively in a transformed South Africa as
well as multi-cultural global environments.</p>
<p>The second reason may be more difficult for sections of the Afrikaans
community to come to terms with. This relates to the language’s history
and its continued association with the apartheid era. More than 20
years into the democratic dispensation, black students continue to
testify to their painful experiences of Afrikaans being used on
Stellenbosch campus, in residences and in the town to exclude and
marginalise them.</p>
<p><em>WATCH: ‘Luister’, a short documentary about black students’ experiences at Stellenbosch University
</em></p>
<p><strong>3. Redress</strong></p>
<p>This is particularly relevant to Stellenbosch University. The
institution, many of its academics and former students contributed to
the ideological, political and economic underpinnings <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2013-06-08-rethinking-maties-apartheid-past" target="_blank">of apartheid</a>. It did not challenge the injustices of apartheid.</p>
<p>The pace of racial change and redress at the institution has been
glacially slow since democracy dawned in 1994. As far as the
Constitution’s demands are concerned, there is still much to be done at
Stellenbosch University to ensure open and free access to tertiary
education. This will not happen by entrenching the language-dominated
patterns of past privilege. It will be driven through changes and
reforms to open up the institution to a diverse body of staff and
students.</p>
<p>The admission of substantially more black students and the
appointment of more black staff must be the highest priority. This is
not only to help create a diverse campus community but because it gives
effect to the constitutional imperative to redress the racial injustices
of apartheid.</p>
<p>The university’s language policy must support and promote this
fundamental constitutional objective, not constitute a barrier to it.
All indications are that this objective will not be achieved without a
significant shift towards English as the primary language of both
teaching and official interaction at the campus.</p>
<p><strong>Support needed</strong></p>
<p>Stellenbosch University’s management team is trying to create a
language policy that will offer pragmatic, sound solutions to this
complex set of issues. It is working with academic staff who are experts
on language and education, and in consultation with a broad range of
student bodies. This makes sense. Academic staff at a particular
institution are best placed to understand their students' needs,
teaching principles in specific disciplines and institutional
constraints.</p>
<p>This is presumably why the Higher Education and Training <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/act101.PDF" target="_blank">Act</a>
does not give university councils exclusive jurisdiction to determine
language policy, as is often mistakenly believed. It requires that such
policy be made with the concurrence of university senates - that is,
bodies made up primarily of academics.</p>
<p>Similar work is <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Free-State-University-to-review-language-policy-20150611" target="_blank">underway</a> at another historically Afrikaans institution, the University of the Free State.</p>
<p>These approaches are by no means perfect. But they are precisely the
kind of reasonable, pragmatic endeavours which we believe deserve
support and further engagement - not the condemnation coming from
sections of the Afrikaans community. </p>
<p><em>Sandra Liebenberg is HF Oppenheimer Professor and Chair in Human
Rights Law, Stellenbosch University. AJ van der Walt is Distinguished
Professor Faculty of Law, Stellenbosch University <br></em></p><p><em><a href="http://ewn.co.za/2015/12/09/OPINION-Why-Afrikaans-doesnt-qualify-for-special-treatment-at-universities">http://ewn.co.za/2015/12/09/OPINION-Why-Afrikaans-doesnt-qualify-for-special-treatment-at-universities</a><br></em></p><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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