/ 22 October 2010

African languages neglected in education, says minister

African languages are being neglected in education, as English is still dominant, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said on Friday.

“No one should be leaving a university or college in the country without learning an African language,” he said at a discussion on African languages at Unisa in Pretoria.

“Higher education has a unique role to play in the development of African languages.”

South African youth were showing less and less interest in their own languages. The development of languages was not a “nice-to-have”, but was necessary for human rights and dignity, as well as for the preservation of culture.

“Colonial languages have continued to dominate and hold value in education, commerce, the media, and in international and continental relations,” said Nzimande.

“While we cannot ignore global requirements for communication and academic transfer, engagement and knowledge building, we do not have to neglect indigenous languages.”

He highlighted that an overwhelming majority of people spoke African languages, but this was not reflected in the education system. Languages such as English acted as “political, military, cultural, symbolic powers of rule”.

“Many African countries have struggled to preserve African languages.”

Nzimande admitted funding for the teaching of African languages was one of the problems, but from now on this would be made a priority.

“We have not sufficiently funded the development of African languages … We have no choice now, we have to find money. We must build strong African language departments.”

There was also a need for training of teachers in this regard.

The meeting heard there was a decline in the number of students taking up African languages at tertiary institutions.

Nzimande said a recent graduation ceremony he attended in KwaZulu-Natal proved just how people, especially the youth, looked down on their home languages.

“They laughed at a student who did his PhD Thesis in IsiZulu on ululating. There is a need to counter the myth that African languages cannot be used for high-level thinking and research,” he said. — Sapa