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Promoting the use of African languages in higher education institutions
Promoting the use of African languages in higher education institutions
Are we making progress?
Each year, on 21 February, the world marks International Mother Language Day. The date was approved at the UNESCO General Conference back in 1999 and has been observed throughout the world since the year 2000. UNESCO says: “All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.”
Public Sector Leaders looks at how higher education institutions are making progress and playing a pivotal role in promoting the use of indigenous languages in South Africa.
Language PoLicy FraMework For PuBLic HigHer education inStitutionS
In October 2020, the government published the Language Policy Framework which showed that language still stands in the way of success for many students at South African higher education institutions.
The purpose of the policy framework is to, amongst others, “contribute to transformation in higher education with specific reference to universities through enhancing the status and roles of previously marginalised South African languages to foster institutional inclusivity and social cohesion.”
In the policy framework, first published in the Government gazette in 2020, it was stated that South African indigenous languages, despite their status as official languages, have still not been formally offered the opportunity to develop as academic and scientific languages in the past.
The policy framework indicated that the higher education institutions in the country are confronted with the challenge of ensuring the development of a multilingual environment in which all official South African languages, particularly those which have been historically marginalised, are afforded space to develop as languages of scholarship, research as well as teaching and learning.
Following the gazetting of the Policy Framework, the vice-chancellors of all 26 public universities gathered in 2021 with academics, language experts, and policymakers for their first consultative session on the policy framework. This was followed by another Vice-Chancellors’
Consultation Colloquium that took place in December last year. The 2022 colloquium, under the theme: Moving the Conversation Forward, aimed to advance the conversations on the promoting of indigenous languages and look at the resources needed to fully implement multilingualism in higher education institutions.
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, Professor Tawana Kupe, said: “I was struck by its brevity and succinctness, contained in just 18 pages. The Policy Framework did an admirable job of providing a high-level view of what public universities must do to promote multilingualism in our teaching and learning, research, scholarly discourse, official communication and administration.
The detail on implementation has not been spelt out – surely intentionally, to allow universities the flexibility to implement it in ways accommodating institutional autonomy and circumstances on the ground.”
Baqonde: boosting the use of African languages in education: a qualified organised national development strategy for South Africa
There have been other projects that various South African universities have taken in efforts to promote the use of indigenous languages. In 2021, BAQONDE - a new collaborative initiative between European universities and a number of South African higher education institutions was launched with an aim of facilitating and promoting the use of indigenous African languages as a medium of instruction in tertiary education.
Four South African universities, namely; the University of KwaZulu-Natal, North-West University, University of the Western Cape and Rhodes University and three European universities (Trinity College Dublin, University of Groningen and the University of Salamanca) have been at the forefront of this initiative compiling an execution plan of the Language Policy Framework.
Chief Director of University Education Policy and Support at South Africa’s National Department of Higher Education and Training, Mahlubi Mabizela, said the project is leading us on the path towards the restoration of dignity and parity of esteem for our indigenous languages. “This is very encouraging indeed and is the kind of enthusiastic response we hope can be emulated by other institutions.”
