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South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate - Foreign Affairs - Nairaland

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South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by AfroBlue(m): 5:39am On Jan 26, 2012
South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate




GIN/Fungai Maboreke


By Fungai Maboreke

Jan. 24 (GIN) - South African Model C primary schools have been quietly removing Zulu and Xhosa languages from their curriculum leaving English and Afrikaans, popularly known as “the oppressors’ language” during the apartheid era as the medium of Instruction.

Officially, students should be taught in their mother tongue from Grades 1 to 3, but a survey by the Sunday Times newspaper found this was not happening. In fact, by the time they got to 12th year, most pupils were opting for Afrikaans as their first additional language after English with 68,455 choosing Afrikaans, 10,943 choosing Zulu and  1,547 choosing Xhosa.

A letter from Mntomuhle Khawula of the Inkatha Freedom Party and an education advisor, was particularly critical: "Exclusion of African languages (isiZulu and isiXhosa) in some former Model C Primary schools is systematically discriminating and singling out certain racial groups."

"We cannot sideline our African languages because not only is it an insult to those who speak it but it's reviving the struggle of languages like it happened many years ago with Bantu education, we need to find a curriculum that will accommodate each and every language."

Bobby Soobrayan, director of basic education, countered: “It is misleading to say that because of government policy, schools are scrapping African languages in favor of Afrikaans…” However, he added, “Because school governing bodies determine the language policy, some schools choose to offer Afrikaans as the first additional language.”

Soobrayan insisted: “What we want to see is every pupil being competent in an African language when they leave school.
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by RSA(m): 2:02pm On Jan 26, 2012
With eleven official languages its always going to be a contentious issue.You can't teach eleven of them,you have to choose atleast English and the other language.
And we all know that in Gauteng all 11 languages are spoken,compare to North West where Setswana is the main language,Mpumalanga is Ndebele and Swati ,KwaZulu Natal is Zulu,Limpopo is Venda,Shangaan and Pedi,Free State is Sotho,Western Cape is Xhosa and Afrikaanse,Eastern Cape is Xhosa,Northen Cape is Tswana and Afrikaans
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by paniki(m): 3:14pm On Jan 26, 2012
Funny that such a article pops up when parliament is drafting a language bill that seeks to promote all 11 official languages plus sign language.

http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/controversial-language-bill-exercises-mps-minds-in-english-1.1220519

http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20120117-south-african-languages-bill-b23-2011-public-hearings-day-1
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by igbo2011(m): 1:05am On Jan 27, 2012
We need to have one pan africanist language that is Swahili taught in all schools in Africa and they should teach at least a native language and English so everyone is fluent in 3 languages.
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by cheikh: 2:16am On Jan 30, 2012
Afro_Blue
Officially, students should be taught in their mother tongue from Grades 1 to 3, but a survey by the Sunday Times newspaper found this was not happening. In fact, by the time they got to 12th year, most pupils were opting for Afrikaans as their first additional language after English with 68,455 choosing Afrikaans, 10,943 choosing Zulu and  1,547 choosing Xhosa.

@^^ It's as if the struggle for freedom from mental slavery/apartheid never happened sad shocked.
Why did people fight/die to reject "Afrikaans" and so called "Bantu" education then? shocked shocked sad.
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by cap28: 10:36am On Jan 30, 2012
the mental enslavement of africans continues.
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by morpheus24: 5:05pm On Jan 30, 2012
cheikh:

Afro_Blue[/b]Officially, students should be taught in their mother tongue from Grades 1 to 3, but a survey by the Sunday Times newspaper found this was not happening. In fact, by the time they got to 12th year, [b]most pupils were opting for Afrikaans as their first additional language after English with 68,455 choosing Afrikaans, 10,943 choosing Zulu and 1,547 choosing Xhosa.


@^^ It's as if the struggle for freedom from mental slavery/apartheid never happened sad shocked.
Why did people fight/die to reject "Afrikaans" and so called "Bantu" education then? shocked shocked sad.

As far as I know the youth in urban areas are loosing their mutha tongue. The native languages are spoken heavily in township areas. Infact you won't get far speaking english in the townships

South Africans are not loosing their languges
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by cheikh: 3:46am On Jan 31, 2012
morpheus24
South Africans are not loosing their languges


@^^ I guess the languages will not be lost considering the African population but why expunge the main languages from the "formal" educational system? I thought that the agreement after apartheid was that everyone will have to learn each other's languages as a means of minimising ethnic conflicts and encouraging smoother social integration. I was aware that it was then fashionable amongst the "white tribes" of South-Africa to begin to learn Zulu and Xhosa amongst the rest other languages immediately after apartheid. What went wrong? Did the desire and zeal during Mandela's coming to power suddenly die away when he left office? It appears to me like taking one step forward and three steps backwards sad.
Re: South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa Languages, Stirring Debate by paniki(m): 10:24am On Jan 31, 2012
The title of the article should read "White South African Schools To Drop Zulu And Xhosa, Stirring Debate"

The article starts off with "South African Model C primary schools, " that immediately means that the author is talking about the small percentage of white schools for those who know what "Model C" means. The bad article then gives enrollment numbers without correctly explaining what they mean. So now the gullible reader will conclude that the South African 12th grade class does not exceed 68,455 plus a few thousand more who take other languages.

This article only succeeds in misleading those who don't know South Africa's education system.

The article if it was any good would've explained that school kids have to take two languages: one being the mother tongue which is called "home language", the second being any other official language which is called "first additional language" The majority of the learners take English as a second language followed by Afrikaans simply because the education system has always been geared towards these two languages

For the benefit of the gullible reader I have looked up enrollment numbers for the 12th year class of 2010.





REPORT ON THE NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION RESULTS • 2010

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