Address by the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga, MP, at the Seminar on the Eastern Cape Mother Language Education Programme held at ICC, East London
Deputy Minister of Sports and Recreation, Arts and Culture, Ms Nocawe Noncedo Mafu
MEC Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture: Ms Fezeka Nkomonye‐Bayeni
MEC for Education Eastern Cape: Mr Fundile Gade
Eastern Cape Legislature Deputy Speaker: Mlibo Qoboshiyane
DG for Basic Education: Mr Hubert Mathanzima Mweli
HoD Education for Eastern Cape: Dr Naledi Mbude
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It’s an honour and privilege to address this Seminar on the Eastern Cape Mother Language Education Programme.
This Seminar occurs amid UNESCO International Mother Language Day celebrations.
According to UNESCO, International Mother Language Day was established as an official event in 1999.
UNESCO pleads with Member State to discuss the potential role of technology to advance multilingual education based on mother tongue.
We are also urged to support the development of quality teaching and learning for all in the local languages of learners and teachers.
The essence of this day (UNESCO International Mother Language Day) is to work towards “preserving linguistic diversity and promoting mother tongue‐based multilingual education.”
The 2022 International Mother Language Day theme is “using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities.”
The theme is timely in the context of forced adoption of ICT technologies to advance learning and teaching in COVID‐19 times marked by intermittent school closures and lockdowns in the recent past.
As we know, UNESCO confirms that technology has the potential to address some of the most significant challenges in basic education today only if it is guided by the core principles of inclusion and equity.
We affirm that ICTs can accelerate efforts to ensure equitable and inclusive lifelong learning opportunities for all if we get the necessary investment for wall‐to‐wall coverage.
During COVID‐19 school closures, UNESCO confirmed that many countries worldwide employed ICT technology‐based solutions to maintain continuity of learning and teaching.
A recent UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, and OECD survey on national education responses to COVID‐19 school closures of 143 countries showed that 96 percent of high‐income countries provided remote learning through online platforms.
This was for at least one education level compared to only 58 percent of low‐income countries.
In low‐income contexts, the majority of countries (South Africa included) reported using broadcast media such as television (83%) and radio (85%) to support continuity of learning.
We adopted a multi‐faceted approach in our country, including blended online learning for income‐rich schools and radio and television for the poor and under‐resourced schools.
One of our interventions, the WOZA Matrics, emerged as most inspired.
The WOZA Matrics assisted Matrics nationwide with learning materials and study tools via classes broadcast on TV channels, online platforms and radio.
But using the available resources of radio, television channels and online platforms, we managed to some extent to bridge the gap between the poor and rich learners.
Obviously, we lacked the sophisticated ICT architecture required to mount a widespread online, blended learning as the public sector.
Our teachers in most public schools were ill‐prepared for distance and online teaching.
Our learners were caught unaware and lacked the necessary equipment, internet access, accessible materials, adapted content, and human support that would have allowed them to follow distance learning.
Thus, it is no wonder that we recently advocated and finally achieved all pupils’ full‐time return to schools across the country.
Programme director, the issue of multilingual education based on mother tongue is critical in our local context as we have multiple official languages.
Our legal framework is clear that all languages must be used to advance people’s learning opportunities, and officialdom must promote, not hinder, such developments.
The SA Constitution of the Republic of SA (Act 108 of 1996) says everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in the educational institutions.
Whereas the National Education Policy Act (Act 27 of 1996) provides every student to be instructed in the language of their choice.
Furthermore, it also allows every person to use their language and participate in cultural life within any educational institution.
For its part, the South African Schools Act 84 of (1996) states that government must discriminate against any language in determining the School Language Policy.
The Language in Education Policy (1997) compels the Department of Basic Education to promote multilingualism by ensuring the development of all official South African languages equitably and to foster respect for all languages used in the country, including South African Sign Language.
As we know, it (multilingual education based on mother tongue) is a critical component of inclusion in basic education, at home and abroad.
Programme director, today’s Seminar on the Eastern Cape Mother Language Education Programme seeks to take stock of prospects and challenges since its inception and explore a national roll‐out.
Thus, I am pleased to say the Eastern Cape Department of Education is a trailblazer in the Mother Tongue based Bilingual Education.
Our policy lodestar, the National Development Plan, tags mother tongue teaching as integral to basic education to achieve improved learner outcomes in Mathematics, Science and Technology.
For the ‘Home of the Legends’, it all began in 2010 when the Department established the Language in Education Policy Unit to develop African languages as languages of learning and teaching ‘LOLTs’ and teaching Mathematics, Science and Technology.
The target languages set for an upgrade were isiXhosa and Sesotho.
Epistemological access to the curriculum remains the driving principle behind this Mother Tongue‐based Bilingual Education programme.
It aims to widen access to conceptual understanding of a subject matter such as Mathematics, Science and Technology.
Thus far, it is the only Department to have piloted and implemented the Mother Tongue‐based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) strategy for Mathematics, Natural Science and Technology since 2012 incrementally.
In 2012, the pilot began with 70 schools in the Cofimvaba district.
By 2016, the pilot phase showed that the MTbBE cohort was doing well in English and Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST).
In 2017, the provincial‐wide roll‐out began across 12 districts with ten schools per district, which later increased to 100.
According to the original implementation plan, in 2020, there would have been an adequate MTbBE representation across the primary school grades (Grade four‐seven) for an extensive evaluation.
The results of the Cofimvaba pilot for 2019 June common Exams demonstrated empirically that the MTbBE strategy policy is sound.
For instance, in the June 2019 common Exams, Grade 6 learners in MTbBE schools achieved a significant 78% in NS Technology, while the English‐only group achieved 50%.
In Mathematics, the MTbBE group achieved 53%, while the English‐ only group achieved 40% averages.
The 7‐year implementation and the pilot phase have given us valuable lessons.
By 2021, the total number of MTbBE implementing schools reached an unprecedented 2015, likely to come to 2580 this year.
To this day, the Department has capacitated a whooping 2520 officials and educators in bi/multilingual teaching strategies.
Clearly, the strategy has educational benefits for the sector, and we can do it.
We salute the Department of Education, its language experts and political leadership here in the Eastern Cape, ‘Home of the Legends’ for the work well done.
I implore other provinces to take a leaf out of the Eastern Cape Department of Education’s language policy and implementation.
Our learners deserve no less.
As I previously explained, our legal framework calls for this mother‐ tongue teaching in multiple places.
When the language mandarins conceptualised this project, I was proud that they didn’t leave anyone behind.
The advocacy strategy for the MTbBE policy targeted traditional leaders, community leaders, all schools, parents, SGBs and education officials.
The results of that sound advocacy strategy and empirically grounded language policy are here for anyone to see.
Today, we are standing here on a mountain top to exalt your success.
Today, programme director, I call upon all Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) to learn best practices in multilingual education based on mother tongue policy development and implementation.
We must develop wall‐to‐wall capacitation of district officials and teachers in bilingual teaching methods and strategies.
Not tomorrow, but today, we must develop materials for the roll‐out of the MTbBE and Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) in digitalised formats.
As a matter of urgency, we must develop and promote previously marginalised Indigenous African Languages and ensure that they become the languages of education and commerce.
Meanwhile, we must get teacher training universities on board to train officials and teachers on multilingual pedagogies.
Furthermore, the Incremental Introduction of African Languages in non‐implementing former Model C schools is now non‐negotiable.
Programme director, I am pleased to announce that today the Eastern Cape is the only province to provide Lesson Plans in isiXhosa and Sesotho for Mathematics in Grade four to six.
Second, it was a marvel to watch in 2020 as the Eastern Cape ran a Grade 12 trial bilingual examination for Mathematics, Life Science and History, reaching 61 464 learners.
I am happy with the progress made on the incremental introduction of new subjects who were not part of the initial project, such as Physical Science, Agricultural Science and Accounting.
These are now taught/assessed in the pupils’ language in 795 Schools, reaching 86 620 learners.
Interestingly, the Eastern Cape Education Department has already introduced the Mother Tongue based Bilingual Education in Grade four and eight cohorts this year.
For me, the big‐ticket item or success from the MTbBE is that Mathematics workbooks for Grade 4‐9 in isiXhosa and Sesotho were translated/ versioned and edited.
The NECT lesson plans for Mathematics and NSTECH in isiXhosa and Sesotho from Grade 4‐7 Sesotho were translated/ versioned, and edited.
The Eastern Cape conducted Grade 12 preparatory bilingual examinations in isiXhosa and Sesotho.
The Eastern Cape Department of Education established partnerships and collaborations with higher education institutions on bi/multilingual pedagogy courses.
Furthermore, glossaries and terminologies were developed and standardised in isiXhosa, Sesotho and South African Sign Language.
In conclusion, there are niggling challenges that other provinces must learn and avoid.
Newbies must eliminate the policy gap between language policy directives and implementation and institutionalisation.
There are always going to be budgetary constraints. My smart money is on us using ICTs to achieve wall‐to‐wall coverage, faster and cheaper.
Like UNESCO, I advocate for technology to advance multilingual education based on the mother tongue.
The people of the Eastern Cape have shown us the way.
Let’s not look back; forward to the multilingual education based on mother tongue.
I thank you.
