<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="single-headline">Afrikaans-only high school </h1>
<div class="theshare">
<div class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" style="clear:both"><div id="atstbx" class="at-share-tbx-element addthis-smartlayers addthis-animated at4-show"><span id="at-d02ea9c3-80d0-4d59-aec3-53e8d76476b1" class="at4-visually-hidden">AddThis Sharing Buttons</span><div class="at-share-btn-elements"><a tabindex="1" class="at-icon-wrapper at-share-btn at-svc-facebook" style="background-color:rgb(59,89,152);border-radius:0%"><span class="at4-visually-hidden">Share to Facebook</span><span class="at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:32px;height:32px;width:32px"></span></a><span class="at_flat_counter" style="line-height:32px;font-size:11.4px">7</span><a tabindex="1" class="at-icon-wrapper at-share-btn at-svc-twitter" style="background-color:rgb(29,161,242);border-radius:0%"><span class="at4-visually-hidden">Share to Twitter</span><span class="at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:32px;height:32px;width:32px"></span></a><a tabindex="1" class="at-icon-wrapper at-share-btn at-svc-whatsapp" style="background-color:rgb(77,194,71);border-radius:0%"><span class="at4-visually-hidden">Share to WhatsApp</span><span class="at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:32px;height:32px;width:32px"></span></a><a tabindex="1" class="at-icon-wrapper at-share-btn at-svc-email" style="background-color:rgb(132,132,132);border-radius:0%"><span class="at4-visually-hidden">Share to Email</span><span class="at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:32px;height:32px;width:32px"></span></a></div></div></div>
</div>
<div class="single-byline">
Ilse de Lange </div>
<div class="single-img">
<img src="https://citizen.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2014/10/153591701.jpg?x68991" alt="Picture: Thinkstock" class="img-responsive">
<p class="wp-caption-text">
Picture: Thinkstock </p>
</div>
<h2 class="single-excerpt">
Education officials want the school to admit 55
additional English language learners when the school opens next week.
</h2>
<div class="single-content">
<p>The education department and an Afrikaans-only
high school in Vereeniging are squaring up for a legal battle about the
admission of English-speaking learners.</p>
<p>Hoërskool Overvaal has applied for an urgent interdict in the High
Court in Pretoria today to overturn a decision by the Gauteng education
department that the school must admit 55 additional English-language
learners when the school opens on January 17.</p>
<p>The department took the decision after the school turned away the
additional pupils, who all live within the vicinity of the school,
claiming it was already full.</p>
<p>The department’s district director for Sedibeng East, Criselda
Makhubela, in court papers disputed the allegation that the school was
full, saying it still had the capacity to accommodate the additional
learners and would even then not be filled to capacity.</p>
<p>Makhubela strenuously objected to the school’s governing body
launching the application, saying an SGB of a public school played no
part in the process of admission of learners and had no authority to
declare that a school was full, as only the department had that right.</p>
<p>She said it was clear that they “intended taking over the management
and control of the school from the department by usurping the powers of
the department over the school”.</p>
<p>The school alleged it only had 17 classrooms available, but Makhubela
said there were actually 21 classrooms available, which meant the
current 621 Afrikaans learners, and still had the capacity for an
additional 219 learners at 40 learners a class.</p>
<p>“Language cannot be used as a tool to segregate learners in violation
of the constitution, the School’s Act, Gauteng Schools Education Act
and the Gauteng admission policy,” she said.</p>
<p>She said the department had rejected the school’s language policy,
the SGB was notified to address the issue of the use of Afrikaans as a
single medium of instruction and the department had constantly engaged
with the SGB on the issue of taking English learners since 2016.</p>
<p>“It is unbelievable and unfortunate that even until today, in this
constitutional democracy, we still have a society that sees nothing
wrong with a language that was used as a tool of segregation and
discrimination during apartheid, which 90 percent of South Africans
bemoan.</p>
<p>“A language whose legacy is sorrow and tears to the majority of those
whom it was not their mother tongue. Today, in this constitutional
democracy, we still fight the same separatist language, exacerbated by a
denial of transformation by certain sectors of society. That is not
acceptable,” she said.</p>
<div>
<div>Judge Bill Prinsloo postponed the application until Thursday so that all parties could read the school’s reply.</div>
<span class="sewqs73whftz6gz"></span><span class="sewylb3nmahb525"></span></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>