Moedertaalonderwys en onderwys vir veeltaligheid in Suid-Afrika: ’n Ontleding van die 2023 matriekeksamenresultate

Abstract

Mother tongue education and education for multilingualism in South Africa: Assessment of the 2023 Matric examination results Hitherto the scholarly as well as the public discourse on the issue of language in education has largely evolved around the use of Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching. This article is an attempt to expand the discourse into three directions. The fi rst is to include the other offi cial languages as well in the discourse, secondly to consider not only the issue of language of learning and teaching, but also the study of the languages as subjects, and thirdly to take a system-wide view of the education system, assessing the extent to which the entire system is conducive to mother tongue education and to the promotion of multilingualism. The attempt is offered out of the belief that fi rstly, one of the preconditions for the empowerment and elevation of the offi cial languages in South Africa to languages of learning and teaching, is the study of these languages as school subjects; and secondly out of the belief that the education sector in South Africa has a pivotal role to play in the promotion and realisation of multilingualism in South Africa. The study analyses the 2023 matric examination results, as these present a valuable perspective on these topics. The article commences with an overview of the societal-contextual and education systemcontextual framework of languages in the education system of South Africa. While the desirability of education through the medium of the mother tongue has been indisputably argued, the choice or availability of language(s) of learning in teaching in any education system depends on a number of factors, including the offi cial language of the national jurisdiction of the particular education system, and historical inertia. The teaching and learning of languages throughout history have occupied an important place in school curricula. Typically 25 percent of curricula time of national education systems is allocated to the study of the offi cial language or mother tongue, and eight percent to the study of additional or foreign languages. With regard to which languages are selected for school curricula, the image of a set of concentric circles can be used. From the inside outwardly these circles denote the following: home language(s), offi cial language(s), regional languages, world languages, and other indigenous languages. To commence with mother tongue as language of learning and teaching, despite the most congenial of constitutional guarantees and the most lofty policy statements, after thirty years since the dawn of the current socio-political dispensation, there is little evidence of the empowerment of the indigenous offi cial languages as language of learning and teaching in education instutions. To aggravate matters, in the case of Afrikaans a trend to downscale the language as language of learning and teaching is evident, and it is diffi cult not to suspect animosity from government to phase out Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching. For the study of languages as subjects, it is heartening that copious space has been made available in prescribed school curricula, right up to matric level. For the National Senior Certifi cate (matriculation examination) at the end of Grade 12, learners are required to offer seven subjects, of which four are compulsory. The four compulsory subjects are two of the offi cial languages (one Home Language and one First Additional Language), Mathematics or Mathematics Literacy, and Life Orientation. Furthermore, learners are required to offer three subjects, out of a list of 25 approved subjects. A maximum of two additional languages may be included in these three subjects. The 2023 matric examinations were taken in 28 languages, at all three levels namely Home Language, First Additional Language, and Second Additional Language. In the 2023 matric examination 48 385 learners completed the examination for the subject Afrikaans Home Language. This number has been growing the past fi ve years. In the same year, 127 623 learners completed the examination for the subject English Home Language. It seems as if substantial numbers of Afrikaans fi rst language speakers as well as fi rst language speakers from the other indigenous language groups, completed the English Home Language examination. The number of matric examination candidates who took the language in Afrikaans as First Additional Language too is encouraging, and furthermore, the past fi ve years this number has increased from 83 889 in 2018 to 97 654 in 2023. It appears that the picture of Afrikaans Home Language and Afrikaans Additional Language, English Home Language and English First Additional Language, and the other offi cial languages as Home Languages, encompasses to a large extent the total image of the teaching and learning of the offi cial languages in the South African education system. The study of the indigenous languages other than Afrikaans has not gained noteworthy traction in the South African education system the past thirty years. While the numbers of candidates who sat for the 2023 matric examination in the subjects Afrikaans Home Language and Afrikaans First and Second Additional Language, are heartening, it is for those having the interest of the Afrikaans language at heart still no reason to resign to unqualifi ed self-complacency. In conclusion some recommendations for the improvement of practice are made.