One way of looking at the proposal to implement mother-tongue teaching and learning beyond primary school is that it would be an attempt at enforcing decolonisation of black education. But at what expense?
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga tries to justify this by telling us that it is easier for learners to understand any subject content if it is taught through their mother tongue, and that other countries have benefited from this. However, she must bear in mind that SA, with its 11 official languages, can hardly be compared to those countries. It makes no sense.
One of SA’s Cuba-trained doctors explained that their first year of training for medicine in that country was exclusively devoted to teaching them Spanish, the medium of instruction in Cuba. The difficulty with this was that on coming back to SA they had to start learning everything all over again in English. Does any of this make sense? It is a recipe for confusion and unnecessary waste of time.
Our education system must prepare our children for a progressive future, because that is the main objective of all education systems in the world.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa
Midrand
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