Only 25% of African languages are used in secondary education across the continent, and a mere 5% in higher education, writes Tawana Kupe.

Although the African continent has a rich cultural and linguistic diversity with more than 2000 languages, the question of the language of learning and teaching, across every level of education remains a contentious issue. Only 25% of African languages are used in secondary education across the continent, and a mere 5% in higher education (UNESCO, 2010).

Similar trends and challenges exist in South Africa, with language practices in basic and higher education still largely reflecting the colonial and apartheid legacy. This is despite the fact that South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages.

While language equality and equity in education is promoted in the Constitution, in practice, students’ access to curricula and learning tools beyond the mediums of English and Afrikaans remains limited. This is problematic not only because it produces young people who can hardly read and write in their home languages, which exacerbates the stigmatisation of African languages in education, but also because of its impact on poor achievement and dropout rates.

Prominent role

These rates are higher among black students who struggle with writing academic texts and understanding terminology in their fields of study because their home languages are not used in teaching and learning. 

Public universities play an increasingly prominent role in shaping society at large; they are key drivers of change in response to national priorities. This includes societal transformation, redressing historical legacies, and engaging productively with communities, industry, governmental and non-governmental entities and other partners to navigate the manifold headwinds that characterise this age of disruption and uncertainty.

Universities have a critical role to play in embracing multilingualism, and many are doing just that through vocation-specific language courses. Through teaching students specific words and phrases pertinent to their sector, graduates can interact more effectively with the people accessing their services whose first language is not English. Research shows that these courses are successful not only in developing proficient, adaptable professionals who can operate efficiently across multilingual environments but that they also expose graduates to the different backgrounds of the people they will serve. This results in the production of well-rounded, socially conscious citizens. 

Language policies are in place across South African universities and enable vocation-specific courses to be structured in a variety of ways. Language courses can be part of the compulsory, main curricula, or offered as additional modules at both first and second language level.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) pioneered this multilingual approach in 2004 and isiXhosa and Afrikaans have been successfully integrated into the institution’s medical degree, requiring a pass level for graduation.

At Rhodes University, isiXhosa is compulsory for journalism while it is offered as an elective for their Pharmacy degree. A bilingual Humanities degree, with half of the subjects in English and half in Sesotho sa Leboa is on offer at the University of Limpopo, while at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, students must learn isiZulu to graduate, regardless of what they are studying. 

Collaborations

Other important initiatives include collaborations across universities. One such collaboration is between the University of Pretoria (UP) and UCT, which used a grant from the Department of Higher Education and Training to develop an Open Educational Resource Term Bank (OERTB) that can help students in various of ways.

It provides familiarisation with English terms that are often used at university but are not as common in social settings. The resource term bank also provides equivalent terms in Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, isiNdebele, Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, SeSotho, Tshivenda and XiTsonga. It offers terms in English and these languages for a variety of disciplines, from accounting and anthropology to family medicine and literature. This national asset is free for anyone to use and allows for feedback and resources to be added. Current contributors include UP, UCT and Stellenbosch University. 

Some have argued that this emphasis on vocation-specific courses is unnecessary and detracts from core learning in higher education. This has resulted in challenges and delays in implementation, which has created frustration among students.

It is clear that the issue of language should be recognised as a social justice issue. If it is not addressed comprehensively and successfully, and if multilingualism is not viewed as a core skill that students should acquire, the risk of reproducing inequalities through the hegemony of English is very real. 

Transformation

Following a series of engagements held this year, the University of Pretoria, together with Universities South Africa (USAf), will be hosting a Vice-Chancellor’s Language Colloquium in December 2022. The colloquium will be hosted under the leadership of the Community of Practice for the Teaching of African Languages (CoPAL) to facilitate a common understanding and implementation strategy for the new Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions. 

The aim of the policy is to contribute to transformation in higher education through enhancing the status and roles of previously marginalised South African languages to foster institutional inclusivity and social cohesion. This is achieved through the development and strengthening of indigenous languages as languages of scholarship, teaching and learning and communication at South African public higher education institutions. The framework provides guidelines for the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of institutional language policies.

USAf is an umbrella body representative of the 26 public universities in South Africa. CoPAL is one of USAf’s two discipline-based communities of practice aimed at addressing the challenges identified with African Languages in South Africa’s higher education sector. The previous colloquiums have been successful in providing a platform for robust intellectual engagement around the policy, as well as presenting an opportunity to work together to actively roll out the framework and reap the benefits of multilingualism across our universities.

– Prof Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria.

A 21-year-old grade 11 learner has been arrested on charges of murder, following the death of a
fellow learner.

According to police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo, the deceased learner was fatally stabbed during a fight in Vlakfontein, Johannesburg.

“Preliminary information suggests that a group of boys were fighting outside the school premises on Thursday, November 17, 2022, when a 20-year-old learner was stabbed with a sharp object on the upper body. The learner was taken to the nearest medical care centre, where he was certified dead.”

“Police went searching for the suspects and arrested a fellow learner, who has since been charged with murder. The motive for the fight cannot be confirmed at this stage. An investigation is underway,” Masondo said.

The 21-year-old is expected to appear in the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on a date yet to be announced.

Meanwhile, the Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, visited the family of the deceased
on Saturday.

The Gauteng Education Department has appealed to the community not to disrupt schooling and
teaching “as our Grade 12 learners are still in the process of writing their final exams.”

The department’s psychosocial team has been deployed to visit the school to provide the
necessary support and counselling.

“We wish to convey our sincerest condolences to the learner’s family and the school community at large,” the department said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

In an exclusive interview with Inside Education, Gauteng Education MEC Matome Choloane said the department will be continuing with “progressive programmes” such as the re-organisation of schools. As part of improving the pace of service delivery, the department will launch 14 additional schools of specialisation in the next 12 months.

THE Department of Basic Education said on Wednesday that it has noted with disappointment media reports about plans to introduce unisex toilets in public schools.

The department said speculation in the media was based on a leaked document about consultations that are currently underway on the Guidelines for the Socio-educational Inclusion of Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in Schools.

The @A_C_D_P notes with shock and disapproval that the @DBE_SA has proposed a set of new ‘gender guidelines’ encouraging schools to install unisex toilets. This set of radical rule-changes for schools will allegedly move communities away from the usual ‘gender norms’ in society.

— Kenneth Meshoe (@RevMeshoe) November 4, 2022

“The media reports are based mainly on an initial draft discussion document which has since evolved following consultation before it is published for public comment.”

“This is a matter blown out of proportion, which may have arisen from the consultations that are currently underway on the Guidelines for the Socio-educational Inclusion of Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in Schools,” the department said in a statement.

The department said a narrow focus on “unisex toilets” is unfortunate as it misses the bigger debate on the elimination of gender discrimination in all spheres of society.

The document, although still under continued consultation, asks pertinent questions about inclusion of sexually and gender diverse children pertaining to school admission, curriculum, co-curricular programmes, uniforms, and facilities.

“It is not entirely true that the Department is proposing unisex toilets. Instead, the Department is probing about relevant response mechanisms to ensure the constitutional obligation for socio-educational inclusion of sexual minorities, and avoid the currently overwhelming litigation,” said DBE.

DBE said the bigger part of the document is an exploration of how the education system supports schools to create a safe and caring environment so that all children may experience a good living and learning experience without discrimination or prejudice.

“The petitions conducted by some political parties are premature because a formal public engagement process will take place once the current phase of consultations are concluded,” the Department said, appealing for calm as the matter is still being processed in terms of the normal protocols.

The guidelines are still undergoing district consultations as recommended by the Council of Education Ministers and will be published in 2023.

– Inside Education

IF your matric certificate is lost or damaged, or if you want to combine your results, you can visit your nearest Department of Education District Office to obtain a replacement matric certificate or combine your results.

Here’s everything you need to know: 

Lost or damaged matric certificate;

If your matric certification is lost or damaged, visit your nearest District Office with the following
documents:
– The original Identity Document (ID) and a certified copy,
– An affidavit stating what happened to your certificate (i.e. stating if your certificate is lost or damaged),
– If it is damaged, bring the original certificate (this is not applicable if it is lost).

Pay the prescribed fee of R153 cash at the District Office.

You may request for the statement of results for a fee of R55 cash at the District Office while waiting for the issue of your replacement certificate.

It takes between four to six weeks for a replacement certificate to be issued (for records on the system).

Statement of results can be obtained immediately.

For records not on the system, it will take longer as records need to be retrieved from the archives and loaded onto the system.

Replacement certificate: change of status or combination of results;

If you wrote your matric in more than one examination sitting and you want to combine your results to qualify for a National Certificate, i.e. Senior Certificate (SC) or National Senior Certificate (NSC), you must apply for Replacement Certificate: change of status.

The department of education does not automatically combine your credits, unless you wrote a supplementary examination.

Visit your nearest District Office with the following documents:
– Your results from all examination sittings,
-The original Identity Document (ID) and a certified copy,
– Pay the prescribed fee of R153 cash at the District Office.

You may request for the statement of results for a fee of R55 cash at the District Office while waiting for the issue of your replacement certificate: change of status.

It takes four to six weeks for a replacement certificate: change of status. The combination statement of results is obtainable immediately.

-INSIDE EDUCATION

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said on Tuesday it has recovered R33 million from Northlink College in the Western Cape as part of its National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) investigations. 

“The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has recovered R33 489 884.37 from Northlink College in the Western Cape as part of its National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) investigations. This is the first actual recovery of government money since the signing of Proclamation R88 of 2022 on Friday, 26 August 2022,” SIU Head of Stakeholder Relations and Communications Kaizer Kganyago said. 

Northlink College is a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) college that receives NSFAS funding for students who need the financial aid to further their studies. 

Following the announcement of Proclamation R88 of 2022, the college informed the SIU that it received over R33 million from NSFAS that was not allocated to students between 2017 and 2021 and had invested it without authorisation.

The funds are meant to assist struggling students, and not for the college to generate profits. 

The TVET college admitted that the funds should have been returned to the NSFAS, but Northlink College has failed to do so, and instead decided to invest the funds and would return the funds on request from NSFAS. 

“The SIU is currently calculating interest earned from the investment from the commencement date, and such interest would have to be paid into the SIU Trust account,” Kganyago said. 

The SIU is in terms of Proclamation R88 of 2022 authorised by the President to investigate allegations of corruption and maladministration in the affairs of NSFAS, and to recover any financial losses suffered by the State through corruption and negligence. 

The SIU investigation focuses on maladministration at NSFAS regarding two functions of the organisation.

The first part will look into the management of NSFAS’s finances. The second part will investigate the allocation of loans, bursaries, and any other funding payable to students in terms of the provisions of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme Act, 1999, Act No. 56 of 1999.

Furthermore, the SIU is also investigating related unauthorised, irregular, or fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by the NSFAS or the State, including the causes of maladministration. The SIU is also probing any unlawful or improper conduct by employees or officials of the NSFAS or the service providers in question, their employees or any other person or entity.

The proclamation covers allegations of unlawful and improper conduct that took place between 1 April 2016 and 26 August 2022, the date of the publication of the Proclamation, or before 1 April 2016 and after the date of this Proclamation that are relevant to, connected with, incidental to the matters or involve the same persons, entities or contracts investigated.

Kganyago said the SIU is empowered to institute civil action in the High Court or a Special Tribunal in its name, to correct any wrongdoing uncovered during both investigations caused by acts of corruption, fraud, or maladministration. 

– Inside Education 

PHUTI MOSOMANE

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), AfriForum, Centre for Child Law, and the SA Institute of Race Relations will be making oral submissions on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill in Parliament on Tuesday.

The Bill proposes to amend the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998, so as to align them with developments in the education landscape and to ensure that systems of learning are put in place in a manner that gives effect to the right to basic education enshrined in section 29(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.

Among others, the Bill seeks to amend certain definitions to provide that attendance of Grade R is compulsory, and to provide for system improvements in terms of admission of learners to public schools.

It also provides for financial and public accountability frameworks for governing bodies and provincial departments.

The Bill further provides for additional regulatory powers of the Minister, and enhancing decision making and oversight powers of Heads of Departments and Members of the Executive Councils.

The hearings are hybrid and can be followed on Parliament platforms.

Other entities expected to make presentations at the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on Tuesday include the Federation of Associations of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS), South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), Section 27, and Cause for Justice.

Last week, Equal Education and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), along with other stakeholders, made oral submissions to Parliament’s Education Portfolio Committee.

The bill clarifies the powers of SGBs and provincial education departments, and says SGBs must be consulted before learners are put in school, but also that the government must ensure transformation, efficient and equitable use of limited state resources.

Generally, the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill makes important changes to key education laws, some are steps in the right direction and some changes are extremely concerning, the Committee heard last week.

Criminalisation is overly harsh and punitive, and it is not in the best interest of children to be left without their caregivers. Equal Education and the Equal Education Law Centre recommended that the government remove all sections of BELA proposing the criminalisation of parents.

Amendments introduce criminal sanctions for caregivers and parents. According to Equal Education, this will not tackle the underlying problems and will mostly impact women, who are often primary caregivers in SA.

According to the bill, certain documents are “required” for admission into school, but there are concerns about learners without any documents who equally have a right to be in school.

In its current form, the bill will allow selling and drinking of alcohol at schools but not during school hours. Although this will be regulated, both Equal Education and other organisations are deeply concerned this will harm learners and that it will not be properly implemented and monitored.

“This must be removed entirely, ” Parliamentary Researcher for Equal Education Jane Borman said.

On the positive side, the amendment provides an opportunity to open up more spaces in schools in overcrowded areas, Borman said they were in support of this.

“We can safeguard mother tongue instruction & ensure the effective & equitable management of resources in the education sector. The amendment provides an opportunity to open up more spaces in schools in overcrowded areas,” Borman added.

BELA bill forces provincial education departments to review school language policies, and consider factors like the needs of the surrounding community. Equal Education believes this is a step toward ensuring language policies are not used as a proxy for racist and exclusionary practices.

It will be interesting to hear what the Institute of Race Relations, and AfriForum say on this matter.

Inside Education will update you on the development in Parliament on Tuesday. Follow us on Twitter @Inside_Edu

THE Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training in South Africa, Umalusi has highlighted several concerns regarding protest action in the Northwest and Mpumalanga which has disrupted matric exams.

The protests resulted in some learners either missing the National Senior Certificate examination or writing it later than initially scheduled.

Department of Basic Education (DBE) spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga says that the biggest challenged faced during last week’s examinations was in Mpumalanga, Emalahleni where about 1127 candidates were prevented from accessing their exam centres where they were scheduled to write either Mathematics or Math Literacy Paper 2.

Mhlanga explains that candidates from six centres could not reach the exam centre and even the ones who managed to make it to the exam centre could not write because the exam officials who deliver the question papers were denied entry to the township.

“It is a problem and we have appealed to members of the public to refrain from disrupting schools because it causes unnecessary stress and anxiety among their own children,” said Mhlanga.
Another issue was raised in Gauteng, where 53 candidates could not sit for their Economics paper 1 due to alleged communication from school management, instructing learners not to appear for the exam.
The school management also allegedly misdirected the province by stating that there was a protest in the area.

Mhlanga says that the department is investigating the matter and that the district has initiated a disciplinary proceeding against the principal of Phandimfundo Secondary School.

Further questions were raised about an alleged problematic question in the Mathematics Paper 2 exam that was written last Monday, with complaints and reports coming from different parts of the country stating that the error in the paper led to the problem being unsolvable.

In a statement, Umalusi said the standard procedure for dealing with such issues will be taken during the investigation.

According to Umalusi, if the investigation proves that an error was made, depending on the magnitude of the problem, the marks allocated to the question may be excluded from the question paper’s total marks or that alternative responses may be accepted.

“No child is going to be compromised as a result of that question because there are measures in place that covers for situations like that.”

Mhlanga says that although there have been several disruptions, the department anticipated many more challenges, and it is managing the situation fairly.

Additional reporting by Staff Reporters

WENDY MOTHATA

SEVENTEEN Grade 12 pupils from Mpumalanga have made history after writing their first South African Sign Language (SASL) exams last Thursday.

The group is the first cohort from the province to write the sign language exam in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga.

The Department of Education in Mpumalanga said that this was a historic record-breaking feat.

“In a historic and record-breaking feat, 17 deaf learners from Bukhosibetfu Full-Service School in Driekopies, Nkomazi Local Municipality, wrote the SASL Home Language P1 on November 10, 2022,” said the Department.

The Department said that this is the first cohort of deaf learners from the province to write the National Senior Certificate Examination, and so far the department is satisfied with how the examination progressed.

“The SASL was recognised by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) as an official home language in 2014. Sign language was included as a subject for the first time in the 2018 National Senior Certificate exams, in what was described as a major victory for the Deaf community.”

In the Sign Language final examination, learners work in partitioned spaces (cubicles) with computers loaded with the question papers and video-record themselves signing the answers.

The videos are then saved and sent to the public examinations directorate for further handling and submission to the DBE for centralised marking.

The cubicles are designed mainly to prevent unnecessary distractions and clear the recording from capturing other activities except the learners’ responses to the questions.

South African Sign Language is a visual-spatial language with its own distinct linguistic structure that includes syntax, morphology, phonology, and language conventions.

It is not based on any spoken or written language; however, it is a language in its own right.

In keeping with the targets of the Employment Equity Plan, the Mpumalanga Department of Education said it will only prioritise grade 12 learners with disabilities in the 2023 bursary awards.

The Department further urged the learners not to let their guards down but to exert themselves vigorously in their studies until the end of the examination period.

INSIDE EDUCATION

Aghogho Akpome

NOT surprisingly, deliberations at a recently concluded teaching and learning conference featured many papers that explored the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education across the world, with a particular focus on higher education. As university lecturers and teachers ourselves and as people who not only conduct research into teaching and learning but also teach and train teachers, we are concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on teaching at all levels.

Of course, one of the key effects of the pandemic on teaching at all levels and everywhere is the resort to online modes of delivery – both in synchronous and asynchronous forms – precipitated by the lockdowns that began in early to middle 2020.

There was a desperate need to do something new and different in order for educational activities to continue.

As we were faced with the prospect of a total collapse of the education system, we had to adapt to something that was untested and unprecedented even though we were not sure how successful it was going to be, and how much the available and useable online modes would be able to meet our objectives. It is important to stress this point: we were not sure, but we had to do what we could do because to not do anything would have led to the collapse of the system on our watch. We actually had no choice.

But now, in the final third of 2022, most, if not all, parts of the world are no longer stuck in the desperate circumstances of early 2020 when educational activities could not take place at all. Now, substantial traditional, face-to-face modes of delivery has resumed, even if not completely. Now, we cannot say that our choices are as limited as they were eighteen months or so ago. This means we do now have some choice. We can now better organise and be far more deliberate and calculative of the options before us. And of course, this is where the idea of blended modes of delivery comes in.

Going by the tone of many presentations at the just concluded conference as well as in debates in other forums across South Africa, there seems already to be a determination and an urgency for a speedy, even immediate, transition to online/blended modes of delivery – even while this idea is yet to be clearly defined and understood.

For example, what exactly is meant by blended modes? And to what extent should such a transition involve the replacement of traditional face-to-face methods? One gets the sense from many voices that such a transition is both necessary and compulsory. And, given that the change is considered to be ultimately inevitable, we are apparently being urged to do it urgently! Especially since it is already being done in the so-called ‘developed’ parts of the world.  Surely, we do not want to be left behind? Herein lies my concern. 

This approach to online modes of delivering education seems to be a disturbing re-enactment of a trend in almost every important domain of our modern life as Africans – our propensity of adopting ideas or practices from the so-called developed world without due consideration. Which leads to the question: As we transit to online/blended modes, are we being driven by our interests? By our unique educational, societal and developmental challenges, needs, goals and objectives? Or are we merely responding to the desire to appear ‘up-to-date’ like other countries and regions? Are we still taken in by those spurious claims of universal, one-size-fits-all, notions of, and paths to, ‘progress’ that have already been disproved?   

These questions are not meant to undermine the evident benefits of online modes of delivering education – far from it. Indeed, these advantages are so obvious that discussing them here would be a waste of time. Rather, the questions are about the following: (1) the yet under-explored implications of what is already known about online modes; (2) what is not so obvious, and (3) what is still not known given our limited experience – so far – of wide-scale use of online modes.

Firstly, what we do know without a doubt in much of the so-called developing world so far is that the vast majority of learners and students are hugely disadvantaged by online education due to lack of resources, inadequate infrastructure and poor digital literacy levels. If, and as, we hurry to make online delivery more permanent, have we considered the long-term social and economic implications of leaving most of our students in the lurch? Or do we already have a fool proof plan to cover our resources deficits such that the majority of students can participate optimally? 

Secondly, one of the things that are not so obvious about online delivery is the new regime of dependence that it is creating. This is potentially very problematic given our current interest in decolonising education. Can our institutions and governments afford the costs – economic and political – of subscribing to Teams, Zoom, Blackboard, sustainably in the long term? Do we have local, autonomous and self-reliant alternatives?  We cannot pretend to be ignorant of the fact that the proliferation and universalisation of online modes has huge economic incentives for those who promote and sell the required hardware, software and connectivity, and that such large-scale benefits have historically been at the expense of some others.

Thirdly, what can we really say about online ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’? It seems to me that we have tended to conflate delivery with teaching and learning in these debates. Over the past 18 months or so, we can say that we have a good sense of the extent to which we can deliver content and the amount of content we can deliver via online modes. But to talk about online teaching and online learning is a completely different matter! If we are honest, we will admit that actual teaching and learning online is not (yet) a given. We still do not know the extent to which actual teaching and learning occurs on a mass scale compared to what we already know about traditional face-to-face modes of teaching and learning over centuries. And when we pare it down to different educational levels, different subjects and disciplines, demographics, etc, our ignorance will become even more apparent and alarming.  

With so many questions and so many unknowns, it would be foolhardy to make unequivocal conclusions at this point in time. What is safe, though, is the need for more critical evaluation and careful deliberation. And this has to be informed by a deliberate and conscientious focus on our own unique educational, societal and developmental challenges, needs and objectives in Africa! Whatever we choose to do has to be in demonstration of a commitment to the betterment of the many. We must avoid doing things in the attempt to look good before others and being co-opted unwittingly to serve the ultimate interests of others. 

Aghogho Akpome is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Zululand. He is an NRF rated researcher.