February
20 February 2006
Two ministries in the Western Cape Provincial Government will tomorrow mark
the progress so far towards a plan to promote mother-tongue-based bilingual
education in schools, as part of celebrating International Mother Tongue Day,
21 February.
Education MEC Cameron Dugmore, together with Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC
Whitey Jacobs, will share the stage with Dr Kathleen Heugh of the Human
Sciences Research Council tomorrow in a special celebratory event.
Some of the audience expected at the celebrations tomorrow, 18h30 at the
Isilimela Comprehensive School in Washington Street, Langa will include
language activists, publishers, tertiary institutions, unions, business,
library staff, representatives of school governing body associations, members
of the Deaf community, members of the interim provincial representative council
of learners and fully representative groups from primary schools across the
urban metropole.
This special function is jointly hosted by the Provincial Language Committee
under the auspices of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, the Pan
South African Language Board (Pansalb) and the Western Cape Education
Department (WCED).
The focus for this event and worldwide is the fact that those who are
educated through their mother tongue for a minimum of six years have a greater
chance of scholastic success than those who have to convert to another language
when they are too young.
MEC Dugmore comments "It's important for parents to realise that this is not
an "either-or" model but a "both-and" model. Both the mother-tongue and an
additional language are developed to the point where the learner is able to
learn well through either medium. Research tells us that this normally takes
about six years."
Dr Heugh is part of an International Task Team, which has done extensive
research on Mother Tongue tuition on the African continent. The task team will
be reporting to an eminent group of African Education Ministers towards the end
of next month.
She will share some of her findings from the African Research Task Team,
"Current Research Findings in Africa: Mother Tongue and prospects of
educational success". The video "Sink or Swim", shown recently on Special
Assignment, will be viewed, after which an "open discussion" session, chaired
by language specialist, Dr Sydney Zotwana, will follow.
Earlier in the day (12h30), MEC Dugmore will be visiting the Bot Rivier
Primary School to celebrate the opening of a Xhosa stream at the school. From 1
February an additional teacher has been appointed to teach a class of Grade 1
learners, without which these learners would not have had a school to
accommodate them.
The introduction of the Xhosa stream and the appointment of a Xhosa-speaking
teacher at this school follows concerns raised by the community during a
Provincial Government Imbizo in Grabouw last year. Parents, councillors,
officials and community members will join the MEC at the short celebration.
International Mother Tongue Day has its origin in a 1999 UNESCO General
Conference (30th Session) resolution adopted to celebrate "Mother Tongue" or
"Mother Language" annually on 21 February. It is seen as a day to focus
attention, worldwide, on language preservation and everything related to one's
mother tongue.
MEC Jacobs will refer to the provincial language policy and to cementing
relationships with the Education Department across a number of spheres. He will
refer to the mandate of the provincial language committee and the urgent need
for the mother tongues of all of the people of the province to be respected.
The Department of Arts and Culture is mandated to oversee language policy and
development at a national level.
MEC Dugmore will refer to the introduction of the Xhosa stream at Bot River,
and says âit is steps like this that will help learners all over the province
to access the education that they deserve.".
"The first phase of our 2006 plan to promote Mother-tongue-based bilingual
education, which falls under the overall provincial strategy to improve
literacy and numeracy levels, will be to call on our schools to volunteer to
join the Language-in-Education Transformation Programme.
"A draft document which has been in circulation since the end of October has
received very favourable support so far from stakeholders," said MEC Dugmore,
adding that "we are nearly ready to table a proposal for the consideration of
the provincial cabinet".
"The two provincial goals will be to extend the use of Mother-Tongue in the
classroom to the end of Grade 6 wherever practicable (while simultaneously
developing very strong skills in an additional language typically this will be
English) and; secondly to grow multilingualism in the province by ensuring that
all learners have at least three years of all three of the languages of the
province before the end of the General Education and Training Band (Grade
9).
Meanwhile, the WCED has also encouraged schools to plan their own
celebrations and events, and in a circular made wide-ranging suggestions, which
include inviting speakers, to watching educational videos and writing essays
and poems.
The department has told schools in the circular that "this focus is
particularly relevant in light of current plans by the WCED to strengthen
mother-tongue education in the province".
"It is very important for schools to think deeply about the issues so that
the day is an affirming one for all who speak languages which are different
from the Language of Learning and Teaching at the school," the circular
says.
The WCED has provided information for further reading on its Curriculum
Development website (http://curriculum.wcape.school.za).
Edulis, the WCED's library service, has also provided a list of recommended
titles for the day, which are available at the WCED's teaching resource centres
in each district.
According to Dr Michael le Cordeur, chairperson of the Western Cape Language
Committee "The committee has decided on a 2006 drive to increase awareness of
the needs of the deaf community and Sign Language". The committee is
distributing a booklet entitled "Learn more about Sign Language", as well as a
leaflet with the letters of the alphabet in Sign Language.
The committee has commented as follows: "The lack of knowledge by the
inhabitants of the Western Cape regarding Sign Language has resulted in
misconceptions about the deaf community. Sign Language has its own grammatical
structures with its own syntax and satisfies all the criteria for being an
independent language."
For enquiries contact:
Gert Witbooi
Cell: 082 550 3938
Mandla Yeki
Cell: 082 553 3477
Issued by: Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Provincial Language
Committee, Western Cape branch of PanSALB and Education Department, Western
Cape Provincial Government
20 February 2006
