A pioneering language project that has been running for five years is facing closure because of the Gauteng department of education’s (GDE) reluctance to support it.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor’s address to Parliament on the education budget last month put indigenous languages back on the list of priorities, noting that, “previously marginalised languages of our country require attention and affirmation (at schools)”.
A 1997 language in education policy already commits the Department of Education “to promote multilingualism, the development of the official languages, and respect for all languages used in the country” – but has long been ignored by education authorities.
Since 2000, the Teacher has reported on how one project that strives to meet this policy’s aims has largely had to go it alone. The Home Language Project (HLP), set up to serve six English-medium schools in Parkview, Johannesburg, has developed an effective way to support mother-tongue education.
HLP coordinator Margie Owen-Smith says that the HLP was born out of “a recognition by the governing bodies of these schools that something needed to be done to support the home-languages of learners whose mother-tongue is not English”.
There are many good reasons to do this, besides the Constitution’s commitments to languages. The 1997 policy recognises that there is a clear need “to establish additive multilingualism as an approach to education” and “to counter disadvantages resulting from…mismatches between home languages and languages of learning and teaching”. It also directs provincial departments to explore ways “of providing alternative language maintenance programmes”.
The HLP fits neatly in this policy framework, not least because it stresses affordability. Two teachers – one from the Nguni and the other from the Sotho group of languages – are shared between six schools. Between these two teachers, about 600 learners each year have been assisted with home-language maintenance at a first-language level.
The potential benefits are many. Maintaining a learner’s mother-tongue aids the process of absorbing knowledge, as well as the capacity of acquiring a second language.
HLP teachers Fikile Msibi and Colleen Moabelo point out other advantages. “Initially learners were a bit shy to speak and write in their mother tongues. But now they show an amazing confidence and willingness to learn in these languages,” says Msibi.
Moabelo adds: “There’s a cognitive growth on the part of learners and a developed sense of pride, self-esteem and identity.”
But for all these positive responses, “It’s been a fight with the GDE from the beginning to support this project,” says Owen-Smith. “Except for a few refreshing interludes, they have been unwilling, uninterested and inaccessible partners.”
So, the battle continues. Although the GDE finally agreed to pay for the salaries of the two teachers for a three-year period in 2001, since December last year it’s given nothing. As things stand, the HLP will be forced to close down by the end of July.
It is hard to get to the bottom of the GDE’s reasons for this. In 2000, a GDE representative argued that it could strain the department’s finances. A 2004 HLP report guessed that the GDE didn’t want “to appear to be putting scarce resources into privileged schools”. Despite repeated requests, no GDE representative responded to the Teacher before going to print.
Last month, Msibi and Moabelo finally met with the GDEs Panyaza Lesufi. While Lesufi describes the meeting as “fruitful”, Owen-Smith remains doubtful. As she puts it, “We can’t go on just with encouraging noises”.
Meanwhile, the HLP wants to get on with its next project: teaching maths in grades two and three in both mother tongue and English. Reflecting its maxim – “If you cant explain a concept in your own words, you don’t understand it” – the students will work with maths learning material in both languages. The result is a lesson that is as much about maths as it is about languages and cognitive processes.
But unless the GDE urgently comes to the party, it’s at risk of remaining what it is – just a very good idea.