'African languages must be prerequisite for Govt jobs' April 07 2011 , 11:49:00 The Pan South African Language Board says government should consider making proficiency in an African language a requirement for those applying for jobs in the public sector. "This can't be discrimination against our people because we have been living together, black and white, and we have to learn each other's languages," says board chief executive Chris Swepu in a statement He hailed Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande's comments on making proficiency in an African language a condition for graduating from university. "It would be ignorant for anyone to oppose Nzimande's move. For a very long time, African languages have been ignored in universities, which lacked language units, policies and budgets to implement them. We see it all the time; most university graduates who work in government can't speak to the public because they don't know an African language," he says. Swepu says introducing African languages as a prerequisite in universities would "strengthen" students at universities as well as the working class. The initiative should also be extended to all levels of education. Earlier this week Nzimande said a task team was looking into the feasibility of every university student learning one African language as a condition for graduating. The advisory panel would look at how to strengthen university teaching and expansion of African languages, which was in a serious decline.- Sapa Regards Bheki Mlaba Department of Public Works Southern Region SCM: Provisioning Tel: 033-8971441 Fax: 033-8971435 Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> "If you wear suit for too long it changes your ideology" Joe Slovo -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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