Access to quality education tops language policy

Mon Nov 28 14:59:10 UTC 2005

>>From Business Day (SA), Monday, 28 November 2005

Access concern tops language
Sue Blaine
Education Correspondent

CONCERN over the future of Afrikaans single-medium schools in a
multilingual SA is a legitimate issue, but access to quality education for
all is the real priority. Education Minister Naledi Pandor and the
education MECs in at least two provinces have been embroiled in a bitter
struggle with school governing bodies and pro-Afrikaans language activists
over striking a balance between issues of access and the viability of
Afrikaans single-medium schools.

Access is what I like to call the super-norm, said Stellenbosch University
history Prof Herman Giliomee on Friday. We clearly cant allow a school
that is half-full, but insists on Afrikaans (as the only medium of
instruction), but it shouldnt be that Afrikaans is made to suffer. While
the debate has sometimes been bitter, Pandors championing of SAs
indigenous languages, and her inclusion of Afrikaans on that list, should
placate some who have claimed the language is under attack.

Pandors focus has been on SAs official black languages, which she wants
given equal status with English and Afrikaans, thus those who argue SAs
only international language English is squeezing out Afrikaans, should
take heart from Pandors insistence that a changed attitude towards
less-spoken languages should be actively pursued. How long is it going to
take to promote black languages in SA? It cant take 20 years, Pandor said
last week when she announced that she had sent back for rewriting a draft
policy on mother-tongue education because it lacked clarity.

Giliomee said Pandor and education department director-general Duncan
Hindles attitude to Afrikaans-medium schools was clearly more
accommodating than that of their predecessors. The language versus access
debate has come to the fore again with the successful conclusion of a
court case which catapulted the issue into the public arena earlier this
year. The 21 English-speaking Grade 1 pupils who were refused admission to
the Cape Flats Afrikaans-medium Mikro Primary School have found places at
another local school, and the 60-odd children on De Kuilen Primarys
waiting list have also been accommodated.

This means Western Capes education department has complied with the
Supreme Court of Appeals ruling upholding a Cape High Court ruling in
favour of school governing bodies right to set their own language policy
without fear of government interference. The appeal court also ordered the
department to find the children alternative schools. However, a Northern
Cape judge ruled last month education MEC Archie Lucas was right to order
three Afrikaans-only schools to turn dual medium to ensure places for
black pupils.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A119422