Language and the current challenges in the South African school system

Abstract

The paper discusses the current challenges facing the school system in South Africa with regard to language, and the role schools can play to achieve the government’s objective of multilingualism. Schools are viewed as the most fertile ground for the promotion of multilingualism, as they are attended by learners from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. What obtains in many schools, especially former Model C schools, is that most of them have not included indigenous African languages in their school curricula. The few that have, offer them at second or third language level – just ‘isiZulu for communication’, etc. In this way, only the language for communication purposes is taught, which does not mean full literacy in the language, or cultural integration. The argument is that with a willing heart on the part of the School Governing Body (SGB), as well as the School Management Team (SMT), language could be used as a tool to integrate learners. This, it is argued, does not obtain in the majority of urban schools. The paper is part of a study which was conducted in 2007. It is, therefore, underpinned by empirical evidence which was solicited from urban (English and Afrikaans medium), and rural (English and isiZulu medium) schools.