Afrikaans universities 'should resist' govt intrusions

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Afrikaans universities 'should resist' govt intrusions

Cape Town, South Africa

30 September 2005 03:09

Without institutional autonomy and bold leadership, diversity of language
in higher education in South Africa will not survive, says Democratic
Alliance leader Tony Leon. Furthermore, the autonomy of universities is in
itself important, he said in his weekly newsletter on the DA's website on
Friday. Regardless of the funding tertiary institutions receive from the
government, the principle of academic freedom is sacrosanct and
fundamental to the creation of a democratic, open society.

Just as the English universities found the courage to resist political
pressure from the previous government, so should Afrikaans universities
resist the intrusions of the new one, Leon said. "The policy of
dual-medium instruction that is now being expanded at Stellenbosch, in
which both English and Afrikaans are used simultaneously in the classroom,
has been a failure over the past two decades. "Lecturers cannot cope with
the difficult burden of teaching two languages at once, and English
eventually dominates."

Parallel-medium instruction, in which there are separate classes in
English and Afrikaans, has been more successful. That is the route many
other Afrikaans schools and universities have taken, and it is one
Stellenbosch should have considered more seriously, he said. The main
objection to parallel-medium instruction at universities, aside from its
cost, is that it could lead to a de facto racial segregation, with black
students congregating in the English classes.

"But whatever language policy they choose, universities cannot avoid
reflecting the problems of South Africa's primary and secondary schools."
Even at English-speaking universities, there is a tremendous concentration
of black students in the social sciences, as opposed to the natural
sciences -- a phenomenon that President Thabo Mbeki has criticised many
times. The problems faced by the neediest students call out for urgent
intervention in the neediest schools.

"But these problems are not going to be helped one bit by the demise of
Stellenbosch as an Afrikaans institution," he said. "If Stellenbosch loses
Afrikaans, the loss of language diversity in higher education will be
devastating -- not just to Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, not just to
the majority of the residents of the Western Cape, but to the Constitution
and its injunction to pursue 'practical and positive means' to promote all
of South Africa's official languages." Furthermore, the loss of Afrikaans
could also mean the loss of academic excellence.

Stellenbosch and other historically Afrikaans-speaking universities have
led the way in post-apartheid South Africa, both in research and teaching.
The fact that they use an indigenous language has been an asset, not a
liability, in their quest for global recognition. "Meddling in university
language policy would be yet another case of the government fixing what
isn't broken."

To be in favour of protecting Afrikaans is not to be in favour of
exclusion, just as it is not "anti-black" to be "pro-Afrikaner", Leon
said. -- Sapa


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