Under ANC rule, single-medium Afrikaans schools have decreased with nearly a third since 2002 and this serves as proof that Afrikaans is under vicious attack at the level of basic education as well, says adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson for Basic Education.
In her response to a parliamentary question asked by the FF Plus, the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, said that she does not have statistics since 1994 at her disposal but that the number of Afrikaans schools have decreased from 1984 in 1994 to only 1234 in 2016. (Please see the questions and answers below).
The reason for this, according to the minister, is that there is a ‘greater demand’ for English amongst learners and there is a ‘decrease’ in the number of Afrikaans learners at schools.
Adv. Alberts says that he finds the minister’s response and reasons surprising, the FF Plus has not observed a decrease in the number of Afrikaans learners at all. What is actually happening is that Afrikaans is deliberately and systematically being eliminated from schools.
“There is an aggressive attitude towards Afrikaans as Afrikaans schools are forced to accept learners that prefer other languages and that very quickly leads to the school having to become double-medium and before long it is completely English. One of the biggest reasons for this occurrence is that new schools are not being built and many existing schools are dilapidated and unused.
“The merciless attack on Afrikaans launched by the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, serves as further evidence.
“I will certainly put follow-up questions to the minister to find out what evidence supports her assumptions. The evidence has to come from objective, scientific studies. I will also confront her, once more, about the protection of Afrikaans schools as well as the creation of schools for mother-tongue education in other languages, which will also serve to protect Afrikaans,” says adv. Alberts.
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Questions and answers:
Adv A de W Alberts (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:†
(1) Whether she has found that the number of single-medium Afrikaans schools has displayed an upward trend since 1994; if so, (a) what number of schools in each year since 1994 occurs (i) separately in each province and (ii) in total throughout the country and (b) what are the reasons for this in each case;
(2) whether she has found that the number of schools displayed a downward trend in the specified period; if not, what are the full relevant particulars; if so, what steps she will take to protect the specified schools? NW1817E
RESPONSE:
(1)(a)(i)(ii)
Please note that the data for 1994 is not available. However, the earliest date for which the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has reliable information is 2002. Table 1 below shows the number of Afrikaans single-medium schools over 10 years using 2002 as a baseline. In 2002, there were 1 814 Afrikaans single-medium schools in South Africa. The majority of these schools were found in the Western Cape, followed by the Northern Cape with 289 schools.
(1)(b)
(i) The demographics in the area of some schools have changed. In response to the growing number of learners wanting English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT), the schools have introduced English as second language of instruction.
(ii) Declining number of Afrikaans-speaking learners forces the schools to revert to parallel-medium (English/Afrikaans) schools.
(2) The number of Afrikaans single-medium schools shows a decrease from 1 814 in 2002 to 1 234 in 2016. The major decrease took place in 2010 where the number of Afrikaans-medium schools dropped by 158 schools.
Note that the only increase in the number of Afrikaans-medium schools occurred between the years 2005 – 2008. The rest of the years recorded indicate a decrease.
