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<h1 class="gmail-bold">Language used as a barrier</h1>
<span id="gmail-spnDate" class="gmail-block gmail-datestamp">2018-01-21 05:43</span>
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<p class="gmail-left">Panyaza Lesufi</p>
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<img id="gmail-image" title="Police use rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse a crowd of protesters outside Hoërskool Overvaal. Police said the protesters were burning tyres. PHOTO: Felix Dlangamandla" src="https://cdn.24.co.za/files/Cms/General/d/6880/497c8c90318c48d5b0f519fc5a789b40.jpg" alt="Police use rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse a crowd of protesters outside Hoërskool Overvaal. Police said the protesters were burning tyres. PHOTO: Felix Dlangamandla">
<p class="gmail-text">Police use rubber bullets and stun grenades to
disperse a crowd of protesters outside Hoërskool Overvaal. Police said
the protesters were burning tyres. PHOTO: Felix Dlangamandla</p>
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<ul><li class="gmail-bold"><a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/at-hoerskool-overvaal-we-dont-see-race-20180119">'At Hoërskool Overvaal we don't see race'</a></li><li class="gmail-bold"><a href="https://www.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/the-constitution-on-trial-hoerskool-overvaal-20180119">The Constitution on trial: Hoërskool Overvaal</a></li><li class="gmail-bold"><a href="https://www.news24.com/Columnists/GuestColumn/panyaza-lesufi-language-being-used-as-a-false-shield-for-exclusion-20180119">Panyaza Lesufi: Language used as a 'false shield' for exclusion</a></li></ul>
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<p><span id="gmail-U10330935326UiE" style="font-family:Wingdings"></span>One of the basic tenets of racism is the notio<span>n
that an individual is meaningless and that membership in a collective,
particularly race, culture and even language, is the source of identity
and value. To the racist, an individual’s moral and intellectual
character is the product, not of his own choices, but of the genes he or
she shares with all others of their race, language and culture.</span></p><p>This
philosophy of racial division, cultural and language individualism
remains entrenched in our education system. That is why Hoërskool
Overvaal’s legal victory – in keeping out 55 Grade 8 English pupils from
the Afrikaans school in Vereeniging – was a major setback for
transformation and the struggle for a nonracial society, and should be
repudiated.</p><p>The Gauteng education department believes that to
promote and encourage a true multicultural diverse education, the public
education system must advocate: an authentic multilingual curriculum
with competent instructors and administrators committed to the agenda;
an ethnic self-identification process that goes beyond the use of
appropriate ethnic labels, but one that explores intrinsic
idiosyncrasies of a nonracial society and a genuine multicultural
education that promotes ethnic constancy.</p><p>What our rainbow nation
needs is a ruling that recognises a language policy for what it is: a
malignant policy that harms everyone and is the very essence of racism.
Unlike the policy of racial integration, some language policies
propagate all the evils inherent in racism.</p><p>The
advocates of language policies believe that admitting other language
groups creates a diversity of viewpoints in schools, a major reason
racial division remains entrenched in society.</p><p>The value of
racially integrated schools lies entirely in the individualism it
implies: that the pupils were chosen objectively, with skin colour,
language or culture ignored in favour of the standard of individual
merit.</p><p>But that is not what diversity advocates of language
policies want. They sneer at the principle of colour-blindness. They use
language as a proxy of racism. They want admissions to some schools to
be made exactly as the vilest of racists make them: by bloodline. They
insist that whatever is a result of your own choices – your ideas, your
character, your accomplishments – is to be dismissed, while that which
is outside one’s control – the accident of skin colour – is to define
your life.</p><p>It is time for our society to identify language
policies as nothing more than crude forms of racism: pernicious
behaviour which some might like to dress up as language policy but is,
in fact, too low to be accorded that degree of respectability.</p><p><strong>An inclusive ethos and practice</strong></p><p>On
the one hand, multilingualism is seen as an asset for educators and
business people. On the other, second-language education has been
systematically suppressed by some school governing bodies in favour of
monolingual education.</p><p>So, in the light of the recent Hoërskool
Overvaal’s ruling, it seems appropriate to ask what our schools can do
to ensure a more stable, inclusive and diverse society.</p><p>Our
schools need an inclusive ethos and practice in their programmes – a
real inclusive practice as part of the school’s culture in all
activities, such as informal and formal programmes, including sports
games, clubs and other extracurricular activities.</p><p>As role models,
teachers should be involved in mentoring through open relationships
between teachers and pupils. Teachers need to continue professional
development, particularly in cultural and linguistic knowledge.</p><p>Pupils
should be given the opportunity to socialise and learn in an open,
tolerant and supportive environment in which high standards are set and
expected for all and everyone is treated with respect and dignity.</p><p>Language cannot be viewed as an isolated construct but must be analysed as an extension of culture. </p><p>In
this global world the idea supporting the total suppression of one
language over another is inconsistent with and detrimental to a
nonracial society.</p><p>That is why no school should exclude a pupil on the basis of language.</p><p>The
right to education is one of the most fundamental rights in the
Constitution and if any school, in applying its language and admissions
policy, acts contrary to the Constitution, that policy must be
disregarded. </p><p>The Hoërskool Overvaal and other cases before have
actually disregarded language rights. Language rights are protected in
the Constitution and will be respected by the department, as they have
in the past. </p><p>The issue is about access to education and the
question of language is being used as a false shield to exclude those
who are entitled to education at a school in which they qualify, in
terms of the legislation.</p><p>At the centre of our nonracial crusade
is how much equal opportunity we as a nation are willing to sacrifice as
we pursue diversity and a nonracial culture.</p><p>The point is, if we
want the virtue of our kids being exposed to kids of different races and
backgrounds, then we have to be willing to accommodate any pupils,
irrespective of language, culture and race. </p><p>Protecting a
language, such as Afrikaans, as the sole basis of communicating will not
only hinder progress, but place this country in jeopardy of losing its
justified title as an emerging economic giant. </p><p>Few people of open
minds and good hearts would deny that social cohesion and nonracialism
are not just an admirable goal but a necessary one for schools that aim
to prepare pupils for life in the real world.</p><p><span><em>Lesufi is Gauteng MEC for education </em></span> </p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="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>
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