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<h1 class="gmail-bold">UFS may implement new language policy, Supreme Court rules</h1>
<span id="gmail-spnDate" class="gmail-block gmail-datestamp">2016-11-17 20:06</span>
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<p class="gmail-left">Tammy Petersen, News24</p>
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<p>Bloemfontein – The
Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Thursday ruled in favour of the
University of the Free State to implement its new language policy. </p><p>This
after the High Court in Bloemfontein in July ruled in favour of
AfriForum and set aside the decision to adopt and approve the new
policy.</p><p>The SCA said pending the finalisation of the main appeal
ruling which is expected next year, the university is entitled to
implement the new policy.</p><p>AfriForum was ordered to pay the university’s costs.</p><p>The
university this year decided to make English the primary medium of
instruction from 2017, while providing sufficient scope for
multilingualism across the university.</p><p>The university applied to both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal.</p><p><strong>AfriForum ‘didn’t prove irreparable harm’</strong> </p><p>However,
in a judgment dated September 21, the Constitutional Court rejected an
appeal by the university against the High Court ruling halting
implementation of its proposed language policy.</p><p>But in its
judgement, the Supreme Court ruled that AfriForum had not proven that
any of the Afrikaans speaking students whose interests it claimed to
represent would suffer irreparable harm if such an order was not made.</p><p>“AfriForum
did not suggest that any actual harm would befall this small number of
potential 2017 first-year Afrikaans students. In fact, AfriForum based
its argument on the same premise as before, namely that the foregoing of
an opportunity or right to be taught in a language of choice per se
constitutes irreparable harm,” the SCA said.<br> <br>“As recorded
earlier, AfriForum had in any event not identified a single student
intending to exercise this right in the affected faculties. Nor has any
evidence been produced of the harm which may befall any student until
final judgment on appeal.”</p><p><strong>Expanded tutorial system</strong></p><p>AfriForum
had initially argued that while Afrikaans might be a barrier to black
students, English was a barrier to many coloured students who had been
victims of past discrimination.</p><p>A move that decreased the Afrikaans offering would negatively affect them, it argued.</p><p>The
university's council said English would be the primary medium of
instruction at undergraduate and postgraduate level on the three
campuses in Bloemfontein and QwaQwa.</p><p>Multilingualism would be supported by an expanded tutorial system designed for first-year students.<br>In professional programmes, parallel-medium teaching in English, Afrikaans, Sesotho and isiZulu would continue.</p>These
included teacher education and the training of theology students who
wished to enter the ministry in traditional Afrikaans-speaking churches,
where there was a clear market need.<br><br><a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ufs-may-implement-new-language-policy-supreme-court-rules-20161117">http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ufs-may-implement-new-language-policy-supreme-court-rules-20161117</a><br><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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