[lg policy] South Africa: Gauteng targeting Afrikaans school -

[Harold Schiffman]

Gauteng targeting Afrikaans school - Fedsas
    March 18 2010 at 06:14PM  Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za



The Gauteng education department is trying to force three Afrikaans
medium schools in Fochville to accommodate English pupils, schools'
body Fedsas claimed on Thursday.
"The Gauteng education department ordered these three schools to
change their language policy within two weeks (before 23 March) to
accommodate English-speaking learners," said Federation of Governing
Bodies of SA Schools Gauteng manager Melanie Buys. The department was
trying to force all three Afrikaans medium schools at Fochville -
primary schools Losberg and Fochville and Hoerskool Fochville to
accommodate English speakers.

Buys said for the past five years informal settlements between
Fochville and Carletonville continued to grow and the need for
education in English and Setswana increased drastically. However the
department had made no plans for new schools in the past 15 years. The
three Afrikaans schools in Fochville did not have the space, capacity
or financial ability to carry the burden of double medium education,
she said in a statement. "Double and parallel medium education is much
more expensive than single medium because you need double of
everything, books, teachers and classrooms."

Fedsas said the Supreme Court of Appeal had ruled it was a school
governing body's responsibility to determine language policy and this
right was enshrined in the Schools Act.
Thus, it could not be expected of individual schools to carry the
burden of providing quality education to all children in the country.
Fedsas said the Gauteng education department in the Fochville case was
trying to cover up its own poor planning. Buys said in another matter
the Gauteng education department told all Afrikaans medium schools in
the Heidelberg district that all correspondence with the department
must be in English.

This would increase the schools' administrative burden because all
reports and assessments would have to be translated first. Fedsas is a
voluntary association of governing bodies of about 1100 public
schools. The Gauteng education department was not immediately
available to comment.

Sapa

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=nw20100318170604970C336872

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