Literacy in South Africa
Multilingualism and mother tongue education in South Africa and the impact it has on literacy (or the lack thereof).
VS 
South Africa. Suid-Afrika. Mzantsi Afrika. Iningizimu Afrika.
Language in South Africa has gone through major transitions since the country became a republic in 1961. Apartheid was especially to blame for the African languages lacking in development as academic and educational languages.
Language in education: a background of South Africa
In the Apartheid era, South Africa was a bilingual country with only two official languages: Afrikaans and English; this was part of the Bantu Education that aimed to withhold black people from certain positions in society. Thus the African languages (or indigenous languages) was marginalized due to the its lack of participation in public domains, such as education. When Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, ending the divided era, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) made a lot of promises related to equality. It recognized 11 official languages and stated that these indigenous languages’ status should be lifted. In specific regards to language in education it states the following:
(2) Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable. In order to ensure the effective access to, and implementation of, this right, the state must consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, taking into account— (a) equity; (b) practicability; and (c) the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices.
It transformed from a bilingual to a multilingual society, but looking at the lack of development of these indigenous languages, one cannot help to doubt the possibility of this new and multilingual education. Even in the post-Apartheid era people still did not trust the possibility and quality of African languages as an educational medium and the influence of English as a global (and business) language made parents choose English as medium for their kids’ education. That means a lot of kids started school with a second or even third language. Also the fact that indigenous languages were just beginning to evolve, they could not receive education in their mother tongue after their first 3 years of education. This transition from mother tongue to a different language is similar to foreign language education.
What does that mean for the development of those kids’ education? A big literacy problem!
Since 1953, UNESCO has encouraged mother tongue primary education and emphasizes that there are advantages to mother tongue education:
- Children are more likely to succeed in school (Kosonen, 2005).
- Children in rural areas will have more exposure to education and will stay in school for a longer period of time (Hovens, 2002).
- Parents will participate in their child’s learning and parent-teacher communication would increase (Benson, 2002).
- Children develops better thinking skills in multilingual education (King & Mackey, 2007; SATU).
The SATU states on their website the importance of mother tongue education and that when the consolidation of mother tongue was successful, kids could easily learn a second or third language; however when that transition is made too soon, it can cause confusion and limit vocabulary, because of the lack thereof to express your thoughts and actions.
In an article on the NGO Pulse website (2012), UNESCO stated that “marginalised communities of Southern Africa still do not have access to formal education”.
What has South Africa done to resolve this literacy problem?
There are a lot of organizations (national, international, and non-profit) who had an impact on helping the goal for multilingualism in South Africa (to only mention a few):
- PRAESA The Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa
According to their website, it was established by Neville Alexander in 1992. They focused on the biliteracy development and impacted the language-in-education policy implementation. They launched a reading for enjoyment campaign in 2012 called Nal’ibali (translated from isiXhosa, “Here is the story”) who promotes reading and writing in mother tongue languages.
Supported by UNICEF the Nelson Mandela Institute (NMI) has supported bilingual learning since 2008 through this initiative. It takes a mother tongue bas bilingual approach to strengthen students learning of mother tongue languages and English acquisition.
Founded in 1974, this institute focus on the development of African language reading materials. They also focused on English acquisition with their Bridges to English programme. In 2012 they started a technology-based early literacy programme, called Bridges to the Future, with help from the International Literacy Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and funded by the All Children Reading Grand Challenge.
It is aimed at families, both parents and kids, to improve the literacy level and start literacy from an earlier age. According to them the parents are a child’s first educator and if they can be exposed to literacy earlier, it will help them in their future education.
Literacy in South Africa 2016
A lot has already been done to resolve this literacy problem, especially regarding to the indigenous languages. A lot of money was spent to create programmes to help South Africa’s educational and literacy problem. Is it enough? Not quite. In a recent article of The Herald by Lee-Anne Butler (2016) states that about 60% of South African students cannot read at a basic level of Grade 4; over 1 million children start Grade R every year and 12 years later, only 30% of them pass Grade 12. What is South Africa doing wrong? Is it the quality of education? The curriculum? Poverty? Whatever the reason(s), South Africa and its education needs help and fast.
References
A Tribute to the Education Legacy of Mandela. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://www.mandelainstitute.org.za/beforeafter.php
Author, P. (n.d.). UNICEF | United Nations Children's Fund. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://www.unicef.org/
Benson, C. (2002). Real and potential benefits of bilingual progammes in developing countries. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5 (6), 303-317.
Butler, L. (2016). About 60% of South African pupils cannot read by end of grade 4, study shows. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2016/05/31/about-60-of-south-african-pupils-cannot-read-by-end-of-grade-4-study-shows
Hovens, M. (2002). Bilingual education in West Africa: Does it work? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5 (5), 249-266.
King, K., & Mackey, A. (2007). The bilingual edge: Why, when, and how to teach your child a second language. New York: Collins.
Kosonen, K. (2005). Education in local languages: Policy and practice in Southeast Asia. First languages first: Community-based literacy programmes for minority language contexts in Asia. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok.
PRAESA - Growing biliteracy and multilingualism. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://www.praesa.org.za/.
The Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the Republic of South African. (1996). Government Gazette. (No. 17678).
UNESCO (1953). The use of the vernacular languages in education. Monographs on Foundations of Education, No. 8. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO (2000). Family Literacy Project. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://www.unesco.org/uil/litbase/?menu=9&programme=43.
By planned giving: Make a secure one-time or monthly gift to leave a legacy that impacts on future generations. (n.d.). Molteno. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.molteno.co.za/
