Abstract
Language in education policy is understood as an important tool of public policy to shape language practices in the education system and in society. It is also an important component of identity and power. South Africa has demonstrated an understanding of this historically throughout the various stages of the development of Afrikaans. This chapter examines the relationship between language and literacy by reviewing empirical data measuring the language disadvantage for more than 70% of South African learners receiving their education in their Home Language. Why this is a disadvantage and how it may be remedied is a contentious question. What is clear in the findings from the empirical data is that language is a factor with an impact on literacy. However, the quality of instruction in all languages, including African languages is inadequate. The roles and responsibilities of education stakeholders in shaping the language and literacy landscape is examined through the discussion of five language in education policies, namely the Constitution of South Africa, the National Education Policy Act, the South African Schools Act, the Norms and Standards for language policy in public schools, and the Language Compensation policy in the National School Certificate. A critique of these policies is provided with specific areas of improvement identified. Finally, the language and literacy inequality is examined through a lens of language and power in an attempt to make meaning of the persisting inequalities. The main conclusions are that firstly there is a clear language disadvantage for learners receiving their education in African languages in the Foundation Phase. Secondly, there is a literacy disadvantage resulting from poor schooling quality for the majority of African language speaking learners. Thirdly, there has been insufficient effort made in the last 20 years to leverage African languages for educational success.
keywords*Language policy, Language inequality, Language practice
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Notes
- 1.
This is based on the performance of a nationally representative sample in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 assessment (Howie et al. 2017, p. 185).
- 2.
“In the PIRLS study, 40 score points are seen as a year of schooling (approximately half a Standard Deviation)” (Howie et al. 2017, p. 185).
- 3.
A Dutch company established a trading station in the Cape in 1652. The Cape had previously been used by the English and Portuguese as a trade stopover. These European settlers were mostly Dutch speaking but other European nationalities including the Portuguese, Germans and Huguenot French were present. They formed a new Cape Dutch community simply labelled “Dutch”. This community later evolved into the Afrikaner nation with a new language known as Afrikaans (Marjorie 1982; Mesthrie 2002) The development of the language includes influences by the Khoi and San as well as Indian descent ethnic groups in the Cape in 1652.
- 4.
Naspers was established under the name De Nationale Pers Beperkt (National Press Ltd).
- 5.
Literary books are defined as poetry, drama and fiction books (Galloway 2002).
- 6.
The Bantu Education Act of 1953.
- 7.
The LOLT selected by schools mostly matches the language of the majority of learners and was an African language in the majority of schools. LOLT is often referred to as Home Language however this may not always be the case.
- 8.
Umalusi is the official education quality assurance council. It sets and monitors standards for general and further education and training in South Africa in accordance with the National Qualifications Framework Act No 67 of 2008 and the General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act No 58 of 2001.
- 9.
The NCS was gazetted in 2011 and implementation was phased in across different grades. It was implemented in Foundation Phase and Grade 10 in 2012; the Intermediate phase and Grade 11 in 2013, and the Senior Phase and Grade 12 in 2014.
- 10.
Black’s Law Dictionary is the most widely used law dictionary in the United States. It is the reference of choice for terms in legal briefs and court opinions and has been cited as a secondary legal authority in many Supreme Court cases and is currently in its 8th edition.
- 11.
XiRonga also referred to as ShiRonga or GiRonga and Gwamba are South-Eastern Bantu language spoken in Maputo and Mozambique.
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Mohohlwane, N.L. (2019). How Language Policy and Practice Sustains Inequality in Education. In: Spaull, N., Jansen, J. (eds) South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality. Policy Implications of Research in Education, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811-5_7
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