The following is an excerpt from an interview published on
AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200412150903.html . The
part below has to do with language in education policies. In
discussing the situation in South Africa, Prof. Ladd hit what seems to
me to be the first question for any discussion of language policy in
Africa: "...part of the broader language policy they need to grapple
with is should all eleven languages remain as viable languages?..."
... DZO
South Africa: Rainbow Nation Pursues `Elusive Equity'
allAfrica.com
INTERVIEW
December 15, 2004
Posted to the web December 15, 2004
Ten years after the fall of apartheid, many wonder whether South
Africa's new government has the ability to keep its reforms afloat.
With the belief that equity in society begins in the classroom, the
post-apartheid government initiated a process of immediate and
widespread reform.
In their new book, Elusive Equity, education experts Edward Fiske and
Helen Ladd combine facts with experience to create a thoughtful
analysis of South Africa's vigorous attempt at education reform.
Although they applaud the government's efforts, they assert that
educational equity remains elusive because of remaining problems with
equal opportunity and educational adequacy.
Western Union
With the assistance of a Fulbright Grant, the authors traveled to
South Africa in early 2002 and spent six months researching the issue.
Fiske, former education editor of the New York Times and Ladd,
professor of public policy and economics at Duke University, explained
some of the key issues involved in an interview with AllAfrica's
Naeesa Aziz.
...
Has there been a consensus on the primary language of instruction in
schools? How have language differences impacted the reform process?
Western Union
Ladd: It's a complicated issue with the 11 national languages in South
Africa. As a result of the struggle against apartheid, English is
usually used by many Africans as the language of economic opportunity.
There's a real question over how language should be dealt with in the
schools. Some people think it's important to just begin teaching
English as soon as possible and that's the way to make sure Africans
get access to the opportunities they need. That is happening in a
number of places, but the problem is that a lot of the teachers of
English do not have the sufficient background and training to do a
good job. On the other side, people are saying it's better for
students to have eight years of schooling in their mother tongue
before they turn to English and [that] what the country needs to do is
invest more in those indigenous languages.
Our view about this is that whichever way they go, it's going to take
some money. Either way, we would encourage them to make up their mind
as of which way to go and make those investments. Otherwise, we fear
that many Africans will be disadvantaged as they go through school
without good language training and then having to take these tests in
English and being disadvantaged relative to their white peers.
Fiske: So even when you do have instruction in English there are some
quality issues that go back to the capacity issues that are lingering
on from apartheid. It's a problem that they're aware of, but that
hasn't been seriously addressed. Recognize that the government -
starting in 1994 - had a huge range of issues they had to deal with,
not just education, but health and social welfare issues and poverty.
We can't really fault them for not taking on the language issue, but
at some point they have to deal with it seriously.
Ladd: We are talking about language in education policy and one of the
challenges for them is that part of the broader language policy they
need to grapple with is should all eleven languages remain as viable
languages? They really would like to be a multi-cultural society. [It]
turns out that that is a challenge.
...
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