In a reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, revealed that her Department is working on having mother tongue languages appear on question papers in a programme to be piloted for Gr 10s or Gr 11s.
The DA welcomes this initiative and calls on the Department of Basic Education to commit to a timeline for implementing this very important step to ensure that all learners can answer question papers in their mother tongue.
The DA has always been strong proponents of mother tongue education, and we view this as an important step in developing indigenous languages in South Africa.
Last week Cosas demanded that Afrikaans be removed from examination papers. By doing this, Cosas failed to address the real problem which is the lack of development of other languages in South Africa.
Instead of vilifying Afrikaans, there needs to be a blanket development of all languages in South Africa, especially other indigenous languages. The advantages of mother tongue education have been scientifically proven time and again, and we believe that all children in South Africa should reap the rewards of instruction in their language of choice. There is no use for vilifying one language over another in the pursuit of scoring cheap political points.
Instead, the Department of Education and other stake holders should be held accountable for their contributions, or lack thereof, regarding the implementation and development of the other official languages in South Africa. Afrikaans school children should not pay the price for their poor coordination and planning.
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