Online school application does away with Afrikaans language preference

Vrotappel

Vrotappel

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Online school application does away with Afrikaans language preference

Afrikaans as a language of instruction in Gauteng is getting put under more pressure following a government decision to exclude a choice of language from the new school online application system.

Well over 100 000 applications were lodged online yesterday.

The deputy chief executive of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas), Jaco Deacon, said Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi was “pouring petrol on a flammable situation” and contributing to creating chaos among schools in the province.
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Figures released last month by the Gauteng department of education showed that it had converted 119 schools that were either Afrikaans-medium or dual-medium to English-medium. Many of these schools were in coloured areas around the province, where Afrikaans is a dominant language and culture.

Earlier this year, the department lost a court challenge after it attempted to force an Afrikaans-medium school – Hoërskool Overvaal in Vereeniging – to accept 55 English-speaking pupils even though the school said it did not have the facilities to accommodate them.

Deacon said Lesufi is a politician and his mandate is to change every single school into an English-medium one.
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Funny how people like Lesufi is prepared to destroy education in the process of attacking Afrikaans. First class racist.
 
Lesufi adamant he can tell schools to change language of instruction

Lesufi said parents were allowed to apply at five different schools and at any school regardless of the school's language policy.

The use of language in schools admission became a contentious issue earlier this year‚ with the department taking Hoerskool Overvaal‚ an Afrikaans medium school‚ to court for refusing to admit 50 pupils to be taught in English.

"If the numbers are convincing we will go back to the school to tell them to change their language‚" Lesufi said.
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Want education to improve? Start by firing this person.
 
JungleBoy said:
Learning in English destroys education?
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Home language education is preferable. Kids do better that way. You can't just scrap afrikaans and throw a bunch of different kids(with different languages together) some schools are set up to opperate in afrikaans, this isn't the way to go about changing that through dropping everything into chaos.
 
rietrot said:
Home language education is preferable. Kids do better that way. You can't just scrap afrikaans and throw a bunch of different kids(with different languages together) some schools are set up to opperate in afrikaans, this isn't the way to go about changing that through dropping everything into chaos.
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But kids speak a bastardised version of their home language. Teaching them in their mother tongue means that they have to learn the language first.
 
I wouldn't want to be taught in isiXhosa, because the language isn't as universal as English (and I would most likely fail it). So, wouldn't it be better if people are taught in English... English is THE taal you want to be speaking.
 
They will just force more and more private schools to be created and run in the language the majority of people in the area wants.


But I guess that is what they want so they dont have to look after that specific group anymore either.

Like the post office, they dont do what they suppose to but rather handing out license print outs and paying grants as there is no mail anymore
 
all public schools should be teached in English.

if you want your kid(s) to be in your home language (not in English), please send your kid(s) to any private school you prefer. :)
 
koeks525 said:
I wouldn't want to be taught in isiXhosa, because the language isn't as universal as English (and I would most likely fail it). So, wouldn't it be better if people are taught in English... English is THE taal you want to be speaking.
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That is your personal choice. And as a parent you then have to propere your kid more to be ready for school in english and speak it more at home.
If other parents feel differently and there is enough of them in a certain area to justify a Xhosa school with teachers and study materials. Then let them have that Xhosa school.
 
koeks525 said:
I wouldn't want to be taught in isiXhosa, because the language isn't as universal as English (and I would most likely fail it). So, wouldn't it be better if people are taught in English... English is THE taal you want to be speaking.
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You cannot force people to speak a certain language. If you want your kid to be taught in Afrikaans, it should be your choice.
 
I will ALWAYS support home language education.

We need more schools, loads of them. We have space, Government just needs to start building more and more schools in every area to cater for the amount of students and their language preference. The issue here though is that for some reason, Black parents think or assume their kid will get better education from a white teacher in an Afrikaans / English school.

That perception is misconceived and utterly retarded. It has merit though because in the rural areas you have teachers who aren't even qualified to teach. They have been doing it and the Government pays them. That is the problem. Don't use people as teachers who are not qualified to do so. And no, a weekend course doesn't make you a teacher.
 
Formal education here should always be in English. I agree with this. It might be a difficult transition for some but it will take less than a generation before everyone can speak and study in English. It makes education from international institutions far more accessible, and gives a language skill that opens up far more opportunities here and abroad. It also provides a common language for all the various cultures which interact here. It should have been done a long time ago, IMO. Teach your own language at home or in extra lessons after school (I had to go for after school Hebrew lessons for the first 12 years of my schooling). It's your responsibility to teach your children your culture and language. Academic study should be taught and learnt in English though.
 
it seems some posters still don't get this.

Why schools should teach young learners in home language

However, research findings consistently show that learners benefit from using their home language in education in early grade years (ahead of a late primary transition stage). Yet, many developing countries continue to use other languages for teaching in their schools.

In Kenya, the language of instruction is English, and some learners in urban and some cosmopolitan settings speak and understand some English by the time they join school. But learners in the rural areas enter school with only their home language. For these learners, using the mother tongue in early education leads to a better understanding of the curriculum content and to a more positive attitude towards school. There are a number of reasons for this.

First, learning does not begin in school. Learning starts at home in the learners’ home language. Although the start of school is a continuation of this learning, it also presents significant changes in the mode of education. The school system structures and controls the content and delivery of a pre-determined curriculum where previously the child was learning from experience (an experiential learning mode).

On starting school, children find themselves in a new physical environment. The classroom is new, most of the classmates are strangers, the centre of authority (the teacher) is a stranger too. The structured way of learning is also new. If, in addition to these things, there is an abrupt change in the language of interaction, then the situation can get quite complicated. Indeed, it can negatively affect a child’s progress. However, by using the learners’ home language, schools can help children navigate the new environment and bridge their learning at school with the experience they bring from home.
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A crucial learning aim in the early years of education is the development of basic literacy skills: reading, writing and arithmetic. Essentially, the skills of reading and writing come down to the ability to associate the sounds of a language with the letters or symbols used in the written form. These skills build on the foundational and interactional skills of speaking and listening. When learners speak or understand the language used to instruct them, they develop reading and writing skills faster and in a more meaningful way. Introducing reading and writing to learners in a language they speak and understand leads to great excitement when they discover that they can make sense of written texts and can write the names of people and things in their environment. Research in Early Grade Reading (EGRA) has shown that pupils who develop reading skills early have a head-start in education.
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