Language as gate keeping

The SGBs of both the former Model C Schools and the rural schools do not take language into account when they admit learners as they know that this is against the Constitution.

In all instances, the rural and former Model C schools SGBs appeared to understand that certain issues need to be considered when the language policy is implemented by the SGBs but they do not necessarily the way this is stipulated in the Constitution. All the SGB members interviewed agreed that they do not consider language when they admit the learners to their schools as they know that this would be in

contradiction of the Constitution. Many of the SGB members expressed their disregard of language when they admitted learners as follows:

No, never, never, ever, the schools are not allowed to discriminate on language.

The principals and the SGB chairpersons of almost all the schools reiterated their disregard for language when admitting the learners by stating the following:

They struggle in the classroom. However, the parents know they cannot speak these languages and they just force them to attend these schools. The SGBs cannot advise them as they are prohibited by the constitution.

The SGBs pointed out strongly that, in as far as the admission of learners on the basis of language is concerned, their hands are tied. They had the following to say:

Many of us know that the Constitution advocates a uniform education system and prohibits language tests when learners are admitted. This is stated in the admission policy.

We have a lot of black students, coloureds and Indian people who want their children to sit for 8 hours a day being instructed in Afrikaans and yet they cannot understand a word. I think it is totally a waste of time for us where the home language is neither English nor Afrikaans.

However, despite the SGB members’ experiences concerning language policy implementation, there is little that they can do other than to conform to the Constitution on matters of language policy implementation. In trying to deal with the circumstances confronting them some of the SGB members indicated that they sometimes used the following the mechanism to try to remedy the situation:

For sure this is not happening. Tests are done in Technology, Maths, language and science, but after admission. The aim is to identify those who need extra tuition or remedial lessons to catch up with the programmes for learners if they do not meet the standard of the application form.

The SGB members in these schools mentioned that the additional work is caused mainly by learners who require extra support as they are behind as a result of the

LOLT impacting on their academic performance. In trying to fill the gap one stated that:

We provide support through extra classes so that they perform better in some subjects – we had a 30% improvement because of the extra classes.

Other members of the rural school SGBs continued to lament that they need to clearly understand their powers in terms of the LOLT at the school level. One expressed this concern as follows:

We are given power but we still do not understand some of the policies like the language policy. We provide extra lessons as intervention strategies. The SGBs are not at school daily. They deal with language on paper only. Sometimes when we are in meetings, they facilitate the meeting in Setswana and exclude people who speak other languages like us Afrikaans speakers.

Most of these SGB members demonstrated that they know their legal position with regard to language policy as they made a number of assertions to this effect during the interviews. Other than the advice given to the parents one stated:

We do not discriminate against any language in our school – that is a bit of a problem but we do strictly adhere to the Constitution.

This implies that the learners are admitted to the schools to which their parents take them irrespective of whether the medium of instruction is English or Afrikaans. Explaining this further a principal from a former Model C School said:

This year our SGB opened up. We, in our part, we don’t conduct examinations or any tests. We don’t do that but, what we look into is, if a child comes to high school in grade 10 and the child hasn’t done any of the two languages of the school, we, in the past, used to discourage the parents because their children are not coping. This year it has to be changed – they want us to take children of any language background into the school, it is stated in the admission policy and now we ask the people if we have one learner or maybe more than one who comes from a Zulu background if she did Zulu in Soweto and we are offering English and Afrikaans. She has no clue about that, she is in grade 10, how is the child going to cope because we do not offer Zulu?

One principal vehemently uttered the above statement. The comment clearly shows that the SGBs in the former Model C Schools admit learners from all backgrounds even if they know their stance on the implementation on the language policy.

In view of the fact that they are aware that they must adhere to the Constitution, the SGBs in the former Model C Schools have developed their own ways of dealing with the challenge. They admit learners even if the LOLT is Afrikaans but they advise the parents on the learner’s language of choice so that their doors remain open to learners whose mother tongue is not Afrikaans. This appears to be a subtle way of dealing with the problem. One former Model C SGB chairperson had had to advise a parent who insisted that her child be admitted to the school where the language of instruction was Afrikaans. These were her words of advice:

Last year we had a boy who was 21 years old and he had beautiful Afrikaans that he spoke. He was really fluent in Afrikaans but, when he had to come to Afrikaans first language and had to do poetry, he couldn’t do it, so he spent three years in Grade 10. Then I contacted the parents and said ‘Listen, this learner wants to farm so he can go and farm, why do we want to have him in the school?’ He went out and he came back and he said ‘Thank you, sir, dankie meneer, dit it is baie lekker, ek gaan werk met oom by die plaas.