Debunked: False claims suggest English is being axed in schools

One commentrespondingto a post theorised that the ‘government wants to make sure we remain stupid’. Anotherpostsuggested that ‘some schools from nelspruit started last year to do physics in siswati’. Nelspruit is the previous name ofMbombela, a city in Mpumalanga province.SiSwatiis one of South Africa’s 12 official languages.

So, what exactly is happening with English in South Africa’s public schools, and should parents be concerned? South Africa is linguistically diverse, with20indigenous languages and12official languages. Before 1994, the apartheid government largelyimposedEnglish and Afrikaans as the main languages of instruction in schools, despite these being different to themother tongue, or home language, of most students.

The democratic constitution adopted in 1996 sought to address apartheid-era language policies. Itincludesthe right for South Africans to be taught in their official language(s) of choice, where practical, taking into account ‘the need to redress the results of past discriminatory laws and practices’. Despite this, most schoolkids in South Africa are only taught in their mother tongue for thefirst four yearsof school, from grades R to 3.

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Because asmall minorityof schoolchildren speak English as a mother tongue, this systemmeansmost children are switched from being taught in an African language to English when they enter Grade 4. AccordingtoBua-lit, a collective of language and education experts, this sudden and early changemeansthat children going into Grade 4 often do not know English well enough to learn all subjects in English. The collective adds that children in this situation ‘do not have a chance to show what they know, or to feel confident to participate actively in their learning. Excluding children’s languages makes them feel unvalued’.

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