17 March 2011

CALL FOR GOVERNMENT LANGUAGE POLICY TO HELP DERACIALISE SOUTH AFRICA AND IMPROVE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

The Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy has called on government to review its schools language policy. This is in light of an incident in which a 16-year-old learner said she was kicked out of class for speaking her home language at school.

"Clearly, language is still a bitter issue in schools in South Africa, something that comes as no surprise given the country's history of using language for political dominance and subjugation," says Molteno's CEO Masennya Dikotla.

A fundamental problem, according to Dikotla, is the fact that language policy in schools is left in the hands of school governing bodies. Language is a curriculum matter and hence may not be delegated to school governing bodies who most of the times abuse that power. In rural schools these school governing bodies choose an additional language as a language of learning and teaching. This is done out of sheer ignorance and it is wrong. .

"This results in a situation where, out of good manners and in order to avoid segregation, teachers have to rule that only English is spoken in the context of the classroom."

"But how will we ever achieve real integration if our children aren't even able to converse naturally with each other?" he questions. "It's also resulting in a weakening of African cultures as some children being schooled in English are no longer able to converse with their grandparents."

According to current language policy, decisions regarding primary and additional language instruction are left up to school governing bodies. "This leaves these crucial decisions open to personal agendas which, quite understandably, tend to job protection and, in some cases, subtle racism," says Dikotla. "Now is the time for government to provide leadership on this vital issue at a national level."

He says government should consider incentivising schools that accommodate African languages, tying the government subsidy to compliance. "For example, where English is the medium of instruction, the school needs to have an African language as the first additional language in order to qualify for the subsidy.

All public schools should be doing this." Beyond influencing integration, the question of language policy is fundamental to the effective education and proper schooling of our children. It was recently reported that the English home language question papers for last year's matric exams had the highest failure rates of all the home language subjects. The primary reason for this is that most non-English home language speakers who attend former Model C schools do not have the option of choosing their mother tongue as their first language.

"It's not surprising that most of these children are failing English, but it's also likely that they're doing badly in other subjects too as a result," says Dikotla. "It's no wonder there are also issues with skills development in this country and standards dropping, particularly at tertiary level."

He says the problem here is government's lack of firmness on language policy means that African children are not properly grounded in their mother tongues before switching to English.

"In the interests of effective learning, a solid grounding in the mother tongue is needed in the foundational grades 1-3. However, at the same time it's important that the second language is emphasised, not as an either/or but as a complementary process."

For this reason, Molteno has welcomed government's move to make it compulsory for the second language, usually English, to be introduced in the foundational grades from next year, 2012.

"This is a very positive step, but the problem we're now facing is that for most teachers, English is usually their third or fourth language. That's why we're emphasising the importance of teachers receiving further training and support in their ability to teach English well."

To this end, Molteno recently announced the introduction of its new and improved distance education training course, presented in conjunction with UNISA. "The Certificate Programme for Teachers of Language in Primary Schools helps teachers improve their language teaching skills, with practical classroom support provided by the Molteno Institute," explains Dikotla.

Another positive step that Molteno has welcomed is government's move to encourage children from foreign countries to learn one of the country's indigenous languages. "But we believe the directive needs to be more specific, to emphasise one African language," he says.

In conclusion, Dikotla says that by taking a prescriptive approach to language policy now, government will be heading off future problems facing our country. "The beauty of multilingualism is that it will not only improve skills development, but it will promote racial harmony in South Africa. If we deracialise education, we'll deracialise the country." For more information, please visit www.molteno.co.za.

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