Cape Town - More than 200 academics and professional support services staff at Stellenbosch University have backed a language proposal by the rector’s management team (RMT) to implement English as the main language of learning and teaching at the institution.
Four Stellenbosch professors, Aslam Fataar, Ronelle Carolissen, Rob Pattman and Usuf Chikte, have written a statement endorsing the proposals made by the rector’s management team and this has, in turn, been supported by more than 200 academics and other staff members.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the group of 226 called on the university council “not to stand in the way of ensuring that the university is a genuinely inclusive educational environment”.
Their call follows the release of a statement on November 12 by the RMT of vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers, in which it set out its objective that all learning at the university be facilitated in English and that substantial support be provided in other South African languages.
It also stated that the primary language of communication and administration would be English, with Afrikaans and isiXhosa as additional languages.
These and other “points of departure” were scheduled to be put to the university council on November 30, and the rector’s management team indicated that the points raised in its statement would be applied from January.
But in a statement on the university’s website on Monday, the executive committee of the university council said: “The Afrikaans offering will not be diluted.
“If changes to the language policy are envisaged, the process would have to follow statutory directives.”
The chairman of the university council, George Steyn, said: “The executive committee comprehends that language could be a mechanism to exclude students as expressed in the statement by the university management.
“As the minimum offering in Afrikaans and English can only be changed by a council decision after due consultation, the language specifications as already approved by senate and council (and included in the calendars/yearbooks), will be implemented in 2016.”
There has been “wide-ranging reactions to the rector’s management team’s statement”.
In their statement on Wednesday, the academics and other staff members said the choice of English as primary language of instruction with augmented support for Afrikaans and isiXhosa was based on the principles of social justice and inclusivity. “The proposed new language policy is explicitly motivated by a concern to open up access to Stellenbosch University to students from a wide range of social backgrounds and to make sure that they are not marginalised when they come here by virtue of their inability to speak or understand Afrikaans.”
It expressed concern about “talk of backlash” against the proposals, “which is an attempt to retain Afrikaans as the primary language of academic communication and instruction”.
“This backlash effectively celebrates the exclusivity of Afrikaans and closes the door on the university’s ability to embrace different people from a wide range of cultures and language groups.”
It said a decision to make English the language of meetings, documents and university business would enable the university to move beyond its political past.
On Tuesday, the Open Stellenbosch collective released its alternative language policy, which also calls for English to be the primary language of instruction and internal and external communication at the university.
On Wednesday, Susan van der Merwe, the university’s marketing and communication director, said: “The Stellenbosch University management has received a statement from academics and professional support staff related to management’s points of departure on language implementation at the institution, as expressed in a discussion document issued on November 12, 2015.
“The statement, which was signed by more than 220 staff members, will be included in the consultation and discussion process with stakeholders.”
Cape Argus
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