Pretoria - Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has challenged academic institutions to move speedily in making the development of African languages a reality in the country's universities.
"The development of African languages as languages of scholarship is an imperative that we all need to commit ourselves to. It is not for government alone to see to it that African languages get their rightful place in our society, but indeed this is the responsibility for all of us," Nzimande said.
Addressing the African Languages Steering Committee during a meeting on Friday, Nzimande challenged academic institutions, including language practitioners and broader society, to all come on board to ensure that African languages were strengthened at universities and in society.
"After today, I would like to see a very concrete work-plan towards the achievement of our objectives, and as from the next few weeks, we must start with practical work. I am sure we are all committed to this."
He reiterated that the development of African languages in education in general and higher education in particular was mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, where Section 6 (2) of the Constitution states that: "Recognising the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages of our people, the state must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages."
"We are and we should be guided by this constitutional imperative, but also by our own commitment as we should not only not allow our languages to die, but we need to strengthen them in line with our constitution and broader educational and societal needs," Nzimande said, adding that if they were not seeking to develop the languages as practitioners in higher education, no one would.
As a way forward, Nzimande advised the institutions to immediately work towards coming up with proposals on how to save and strengthen African languages departments in universities, especially for foundational phase learning at school. This, he said, must include the identification of incentives or legislative and other policy interventions that may be required in this regard.
"We must explore the feasibility and possibility of promoting and making it a requirement that all South African students in higher education must at least be able to speak/read/write at least one African indigenous language. In this regard, we would also have to look at the implications of this for teaching and usage of African languages in our entire education system." - BuaNews
