South Africa: School's language policy vetoed

[Harold F. Schiffman]

School's language policy vetoed

By Zelda Venter

The Hoerskool Ermelo in Mpumalanga has been told to operate as a parallel
medium school and no longer as an Afrikaans-only school - for now. This
was the effect of a ruling handed down late yesterday afternoon by
Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe. He rescinded an order given by
one of his judges a week ago. Judge Bill Prinsloo at the time said there
was prima facie evidence that the head of the Mpumalanga education
department had acted over-hastily and unfairly when he took away the right
of the school's governing body to decide on a language policy.

Prinsloo suspended a special education committee's decision to change the
school's language policy from Afrikaans-only to parallel medium. This was
pending the outcome of a review application regarding the legitimacy of
the committee's decision. But Education Minister Naledi Pandor and
Elizabeth Masilela, a mother whose child was turned away, turned to the
Pretoria high court on Monday and asked for an urgent order to set aside
Prinsloo's order. Ngoepe at first reserved judgment, but unexpectedly gave
his order late yesterday. He did not supply his reasons for granting the
order in favour of the minister and Masilela.

The school operated as an Afrikaans-only school up to about a week after
the start of the academic year. The problems started when 113 black pupils
wanted to enrol for Grade 8. They were turned away on the basis that the
school's mother tongue was Afrikaans. In the month that the school has
been open for the new school year, it has been an Afrikaans-only school,
then a parallel medium school, then an Afrikaans-only school again. Now it
is set to again be a parallel medium school. The position can once again
change when the committee's right to change the mother tongue policy of
the school will be challenged. The minister was yesterday granted leave to
enter the fray in the main application.

But for now the school has to enrol non-Afrikaans-speaking children. It
had already accepted 13 black pupils during the window period when it was
earlier declared that the school would be parallel medium. The court this
week heard that the principal had asked for three additional teachers for
these children and that they were awaiting learning material. Meanwhile,
counsel for the school said they would consider their options and had not
yet decided whether to appeal Ngoepe's ruling or not. The minister and the
school were at loggerheads this week over the mother tongue policy of the
school. It was argued on behalf of the school that the decision not to
accept English-speaking pupils was not based on race, but rather on
language.

Ngoepe was told that the school was being labelled as a "bully" when it
only sought to protect its rights. It was also argued that the
Afrikaans-speaking pupils would be prejudiced if the school's language
policy was to be changed. But counsel for the minister questioned how this
could be, as the pupils still stood to be educated in their mother tongue.
He said it was in fact the pupils who were turned away who stood to be
prejudiced, as they now sat at home. The other schools in the vicinity
were already full for this year, Ngoepe was told. Counsel for the minister
and Masilela said it was a blatant attempt to "shut out" a certain section
of the community. The court heard that there was space for the additional
pupils as the school used less than half of its space. Most of the pupils
who were excluded on the base of language lived nearby, the court was
told.

Masilela said in a statement her daughter was told that unless she was
prepared to be taught in Afrikaans, there was no room for her at the
school. She said this infringed on the constitutional rights of her
daughter and the other pupils who were turned away. Eben Boshoff, of the
Department of Education, said a school's language policy was determined by
the minister. "The aim of the policy is to give norms and standards
regarding the implementation of language of instruction in public
schools," he said.

Published on the web by Pretoria News on February 13, 2007.

http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3680477

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