A crisis is looming in the country regarding the preservation, maintenance and identity of South Africa’s indigenous African tongues.
This is according to a framework report on the development of these languages in higher education, presented to Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Tuesday.
Put together by a specialist team led by University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Prof Njabulo Ndebele, it recommends ”well-coordinated, long-range national plan to provide adequate resources and support for indigenous African languages”.
Pandor’s spokesperson Tommy Makhode said: ”The ministry is studying the report and will, in due course, indicate the key areas to be pursued.”
The report points out that the objective to develop official indigenous languages as mediums of instruction in higher education requires systemic undergirding by the entire schooling system.
Also needed is the enhanced public and social use of these languages in the daily lives of South Africans, it says.
However, the report acknowledges that declining numbers of students wish to study African languages, resulting in the closing down of African language departments in a number of higher-education institutions.
It further recommends that each higher-education institution should be required to identify an indigenous African language of choice for initial development as a medium of instruction.
”Higher-education institutions could adopt a regional approach by taking collective decisions on areas of speciality to be targeted for teaching and learning in a specific indigenous African language,” it says. — Sapa