The Department of Basic Education has denied a report that former Model C schools have stopped offering Xhosa as a subject for pupils in Grade 0 to Grade 3.
Weekend media reports said that many of these schools had stopped offering the language as a first additional language and were offering Afrikaans instead.
Director-general Bobby Soobrayan said on Monday that school governing bodies decided on the school’s language policy, but it was not government policy that they should not offer African languages.
Soobrayan said there was a mixed reaction from schools to the department’s insistence that pupils should leave school competent in at least one African language.
“It is misleading to say that because of government policy, schools are scrapping African languages in favour of Afrikaans as the first additional language.
“What we are saying is that because pupils find it difficult to start learning in English when they get to Grade 4, they must be taught English when they start school.
“This would mean they would then have their home language as the first additional language.
“Because school governing bodies determine the language policy, some schools choose to offer Afrikaans as the first additional language.”
The department could not dictate language policy to the schools, but had pleaded with them to offer African languages at schools, Soobrayan said.
“What we want to see is every pupil being competent in an African language when they leave school,” he said.
“It cannot be correct then that pupils do not have an African language from Grade 0 to Grade 3.
“The reaction from schools has been mixed.
“Many are enthusiastic about teaching African languages, but others are less enthusiastic.”
In the matric exams last year, 68 455 Grade 12s wrote Afrikaans as their first additional language, compared with the 1 547 pupils who wrote Xhosa and 10 943 who wrote Zulu.
A Sunday Times report at the weekend said that most former Model C schools were scrapping Xhosa and making pupils study Afrikaans as their first additional language. - Pretoria News