multiple messages: language policy in Africa

Tue Nov 22 15:48:05 UTC 2005

1. UJ language issue 'on hold' 21/11/2005 16:37 - (SA)

Mbeki: Varsities in vital role

Pandor says varsities in crisis

Johannesburg - The status quo on language use at the University of
Johannesburg (UJ) will remain in place for some time, the university
announced on Monday. The language policy was being reviewed by the
university council and a final decision was being awaited, said the UJ.

Maintaining the status quo means:

on the Soweto campus (formerly Vista University), the East Rand campus,
the Doornfontein campus and the Auckland Park Bunting Road campus
(formerly Technikon Witwatersrand), English is the language of
instruction, administration, communication, marketing and record; and on
the Auckland Park Kingsway Campus (formerly Rand Afrikaans University),
English and Afrikaans are the languages of instruction, administration,
communication, marketing and record.  Until the new language policy of the
university had been drafted and finalised by the council, the status quo
regarding language use would be maintained.

It had been hoped the senate and council would have been in a position to
approve a language policy for the university - after the recent merger of
the Rand Afrikaans University, Technikon Witwatersrand and Vista
University's Soweto campus - for implementation in 2006, but this had not
been possible. "Although progress has been made in this regard, much work
still needs to be done. We are hoping a language policy will be approved
in 2006," said the university.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1838089,00.html

2.       Afrikaners in a Tizz

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
November 20, 2005

By Jeanne van der Merwe
Johannesburg

WILL lectures in Afrikaans and English kill off the taal? Yes, reckons a
very vocal band of current and former Stellenbosch University students,
after the university recently approved the introduction of dual-medium
instruction in the final undergraduate year of the arts faculty. For the
past two months, a well-oiled media campaign has been raging in the
letters and news columns of Die Burger, the largest Afrikaans daily in the
country. From this it has been clear that not all Afrikaans speakers are
happy that their language has to compete with 10 other official languages
instead of being one of only two official languages.

One snide letter-writer remarked this week that Zulus might well be bused
in from KwaZulu-Natal to make the campus more representative of the South
African population -- indicating a resistance to perhaps more than just
accommodating other languages. But the pro-Afrikaans movement also has the
support of famed Afrikaans writers such as Andr P Brink, Breyten
Breytenbach and Etienne van Heerden, as well as modern literary voices
such as Tom Dreyer. They share a worldwide concern over the threat facing
small language groups. More than 3500 students and staff members at the
university have signed a petition against dual-medium instruction.

Led by controversial Afrikaans academic Hermann Giliomee, the
pro-Afrikaans polemic was timed to coincide with a meeting of the
university's body of graduates, the convocation, at which a motion against
dual-medium teaching would be tabled. I had only seen one side of the
debate -- two years ago when President Thabo Mbeki was about to receive an
honorary doctorate from my alma mater, and the ANC Youth League and the
South African Students' Congress threatened a protest march coinciding
with the ceremony.

I interviewed the student leaders behind the planned protest. They were
unhappy with the Afrikaans-only teaching policy in most undergraduate
courses. They struggled to follow lectures. They felt unwelcome and
excluded on the campus. They were puzzled as to how a university could
recruit them and then force them to learn in their third or fourth
language. Although that march was called off, there was a march in July
this year, at which much the same sentiment was expressed and where
students asked for parallel-medium instruction. Giliomee, in his keynote
speech at last Thursday's convocation meeting, however, expressed a
different view of reality.

"Last year Stellenbosch University itself found that 95% of its students
say they know [the university] is Afrikaans when they come here. We want
students who come to Stellenbosch to indeed get 100% what they expect ...
"What is the problem, then? That the university admits more and more
lecturers and students who, knowing that the university is Afrikaans,
cannot or do not want to lecture in Afrikaans. And that the university
puts just about no pressure [on them] or presents no incentives to them
[to use Afrikaans]."

His concern was that expanding dual-medium instruction beyond the first
academic year in the arts faculty "makes it unnecessary [for students] to
learn Afrikaans" -- "hence the protest". I saw few brown and black faces
in the more than 1000-strong gathering, which cheered Giliomee on and
clapped as he decried the feared slide towards English -- just as I had
seen relatively few brown and black faces on campus when I left the
university six years ago. Professor Anton van Niekerk, the chairman of the
university's language committee, elicited a different response. Drawing on
24 years in the arts faculty, he asked what he should do when students
indicated they were unable to follow him in Afrikaans.

He pointed out that the core question at hand was whether the university
should have more "African" students. His remarks were met with jeers and
laughter. His plea was followed by a woman who remarked approvingly that
if the university remained Afrikaans by default, "we can force them to
learn Afrikaans", and an elderly gentleman who said that, when he started
his studies there in 1952, he befriended an Englishman who did not object
to being taught in Afrikaans.

Stellenbosch University's rector, Chris Brink, pointed out that there were
more Afrikaans-speaking black and coloured students at the English-medium
University of the Western Cape than at Stellenbosch, despite its aims to
promote multilingualism and multiculturalism through Afrikaans. Giliomee
said in an interview that a possible solution would be to have poorer
black and coloured students take their first-year subjects over two years
and simultaneously learn Afrikaans well enough to follow lectures, and
that students at all international universities have to learn the official
language of the university.

But what of the rights guaranteed in our Constitution that students can be
taught in the language of their choice, and the obligation to turn
universities previously reserved for a white elite into places where
marginalised black and coloured students are also welcome? The four other
formerly Afrikaans universities are also trying to find a balance between
protecting the rights of Afrikaners and those of other students and staff
members. They vary teaching between dual medium and parallel medium
(separate classes in Afrikaans and English).

The University of North West, which incorporates the former Potchefstroom
University, has real-time interpreters in some classes. Most of these
universities, including Stellenbosch, are continuously revising their
language policies to take daily realities into account. Professor Niek
Grov of the University of Pretoria said: "Afrikaans is a minority language
that is spoken by minority groups in South Africa.  English is
increasingly becoming the lingua franca of the academic world.  Academic
languages other than English are under pressure worldwide.

"One cannot force anyone to use Afrikaans. But on the other hand one
should not make it impossible for people to use Afrikaans if they want to.
"The language policy has made it possible for the university to transform.
It also created the possibility of drawing lecturing staff from a much
larger pool of national and international academics than was previously
the case," he said.

Professor Leon de Stadler, director of Stellenbosch's language centre,
said: "The language debate is not always relevant enough and is sometimes
too emotional. It is a complicated matter that needs a nuanced solution."
Cynthia Marivate, chief executive of the Pan South African Language Board,
which promotes the equality of all the official languages, said fear of
the demise of Afrikaans was unnecessary and would not help university
managements to find a workable solution.

"If learners are presented with a choice between English and Afrikaans
this does not mean the university is refusing to give instruction in
Afrikaans. If [the interest groups] fear for Afrikaans they should think
of the other official languages which aren't even in the arena [of
tertiary education] yet." She pointed out that educational institutions
were constitutionally bound to teach students in the language of their
choice where practicable, but that multilingualism was expensive and that
the minister of Education would have to provide additional funds to make
this possible.

"We have a rich Afrikaans history and Afrikaans skills. We don't want to
throw that down the drain, but we want it to be part of a transformed
society," she said. Should Afrikaans-speakers insist on their right to be
taught in their language at whatever cost? Does it matter if more English
creeps into lecture halls along with darker faces? Will Afrikaans die out
if its status is slightly downgraded at one university?

The answers are not easy, and only time will tell if Afrikaans will
survive. But a large portion of my fellow Stellenbosch graduates seem to
find it difficult to accept that Afrikaans no longer exists in a political
system that forces the language on an unwilling, uncomprehending populace.
Advancing exclusionary, hard-line arguments is not the answer, especially
on university campuses that are supposed to be public property, and in a
country in such desperate need of graduates.

3.  Date set for release of matric results: policy must boost
communication skills in the black languages.

Pretoria, South Africa  21 November 2005 05:51

The matric results will be announced on Thursday December 29, Minister of
Education Naledi Pandor said on Monday. The date was agreed to at a
Council of Education Ministers meeting in Pretoria on Monday. Matrics
finished writing their exams earlier this month. The date was one of a
number of issues dealt with at the meeting. The council also approved a
draft policy on school uniforms, setting out the essential items schools
can require of pupils.

It is about cutting costs and preventing the purchase of unnecessary
clothing, Pandor explained, adding that the draft makes provision for the
assistance of those unable to afford even the basic items. The council did
not approve a draft language policy to ensure children are taught in their
mother tongues in primary school and learn to converse in at least one
indigenous black language. It was sent back for refinement, said Pandor.
The draft needs to clarify the source of the resources needed to introduce
the policy and to appoint extra teachers, she said.

"We stressed the need that our policy must promote the learning of at
least one of the black indigenous languages at the communicative level."
This does not involve education and teaching in the indigenous language,
but merely ensuring a basic competence. Although Pandor acknowledged that
Afrikaans is an indigenous language, she said the policy will seek
specifically to boost communication skills in the black languages. "How
long must it take us to promote black languages in South Africa? It cannot
take us 20 years."

Director General of Education Duncan Hindle said the draft is being
developed by national and provincial education departments and experts,
and should come before the council again early next year. On the building
of new school premises, Pandor reported the construction of 67 schools in
the 179 areas identified last year where pupils were still being taught
under trees. She instructed provincial ministers to move with speed on the
outstanding 112 cases. This could even entail the provision of mobile
classrooms, Pandor said, adding: "We cannot allow this to go on."

Regarding schools without water, she said the backlog has been reduced
"quite significantly" by about 72%. Steps are also being taken to ensure
all schools have access to sanitation and that classrooms are safe. The
council also discussed the National Council of Provinces' recent approval
of the Education Laws Amendment Bill, providing for the introduction of
no-fee schools from next year.

The National Assembly is to consider the Bill on December 13 and 14,
Pandor said. "We hope the president will sign it this year." The project
will be funded from R30-billion set aside in the national Budget for
social services this year. Confident that the department is ready to
introduce the new grade-10 curriculum next year, Pandor said: "It is all
systems go."

The distribution of textbook catalogues and teacher orientation material
is "progressing well". The council also adopted a policy to lessen
teachers' administrative and paperwork burden and agreed to bring out
five-yearly rather than annual school calendars. -- Sapa

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=257170#