Thank you VEX for this story. I found it most interesting. I’m curious what the result will be a few years down the road. How was it in Rhodesia, Jan? I understand that Rhodesia had the best educated blacks in Africa. Is that so? JoAn

[Thanks for this Vex. This does indeed make a mockery of the 1976 Soweto riots doesn’t it? Remember? The black school kids (driven on by the ANC actually)… claimed that they did not like being FORCED to learn Afrikaans. But now here they are… exactly 30 years later… ditching their own languages and rather learning Afrikaans because its easier! Duh! Doesn’t this just make a JOKE of the 1976 Soweto riots?

JoAn, re: Black education in Zim. Blacks in Zim are well-educated, and Mugabe must take some credit for it. I’d say Mugabe ran his education much better than the ANC ever could. He gave blacks FREE SCHOOLING for a long time I believe, and it shows. When I was involved with those Zimbabweans in Johannesburg you could see how very literate they were – extremely so. It also makes them good crooks I might add! I think the black Zimbabweans are very possibly the best educated in Africa at this stage. Jan]

(152)˜Easy™ Afrikaans chosen over African languages

Pupils drop (152)˜difficult™ Zulu as their second language ” or even ditch it altogether
22 October 2006
PREGA GOVENDER

PUPILS are ditching indigenous African languages as second-language subjects in favour of Afrikaans, which they find easier to learn.

Although pupils have not been compelled to take Afrikaans or English since 1997, they still prefer to study these languages instead of African indigenous languages.

Even Zulu-speaking pupils at some of the country™s top private and former Model C schools are forsaking their mother tongue and taking Afrikaans as a second language, English being their œfirst-language choice.

Out of the 558393 pupils writing matric this year, only 9788 will sit exams in indigenous African languages as a second language. The majority, 266408, have opted for Afrikaans. Of those taking an African second language, most ” 7428 ” have chosen Zulu.

When it comes to first languages, 130611 matrics are writing Zulu this year, and 80665 will sit English at the same level. A total of 78402 candidates will write Xhosa and 72725 Sepedi as a first language. A total of 54204 will write Afrikaans as a first language.

At Parktown High School for Girls in Johannesburg, 41 African pupils in Grade 11 have chosen Afrikaans instead of Zulu as their second language after English.

One of them, Lydia Nonyana, 17, said: œJust because you™re black doesn™t mean you have to speak an African language. If you have never spoken Zulu before, I™d assume that Zulu will be more difficult.

Nonyana said that Zulu grammar was more difficult than Afrikaans.

Zulu subject advisers and teachers are adamant that their language is not difficult. Instead, they accuse some schools of deliberately sidelining Zulu by not offering it in the curriculum or only offering it as a seventh subject taught outside school hours.

But eminent Zulu academics conceded that Zulu grammar could be œproblematic for second-language speakers.

A University of KwaZulu-Natal deputy dean, Professor Sihawu Ngubane, said: œIn isiZulu, the morphology [the form of words] is difficult. The phonetics make it very difficult as well as the syntax [sentence construction].

Ngubane said pupils, however, would not have difficulty studying sections on Zulu oral traditions, folklore and poetry.

Agreeing that Zulu grammar was œmore complicated, Msawakhe Hlengwa, deputy chairman of the isiZulu National Language Body, said: œYou can™t finish a paragraph [in Zulu] without using an idiom. If you don™t understand the idioms and proverbs embedded in the language, you will miss the message.

Mina Hlatshwayo, a teacher of Zulu at Sekolo sa Borokgo, a private school in Johannesburg, said: œWhat I have found is that children don™t understand Zulu grammar. They resort to taking Afrikaans because they studied it from primary school.

Bongani Mthembu, 16, a Grade 10 pupil at Sekolo sa Borokgo, said he chose Afrikaans because he found studying the œparts of speech in Zulu difficult.

œI found Zulu hard in grades 5 and 6, and I prefer Afrikaans to Zulu.

Afrikaans is also more popular among second-language speakers at St John™s College in Houghton, Johannesburg.

Deputy principal Ann Nettleton said Zulu grammar was œmore complex than Afrikaans.

Nerav Bundiparsad, 15, is among several Grade 9 pupils at Drakensberg Secondary who will give up Zulu for Afrikaans next year.

Bundiparsad, who failed both his mid-year and September Zulu exams, said: œZulu grammar is very difficult. I can™t cope with reading in Zulu.

Despite the new Grade 10 curriculum implemented at the beginning of the year ” offering pupils a choice of the 11 official languages as second languages ” many KwaZulu-Natal schools are still limiting pupil choice to Afrikaans.

Although 23 of the 70 Grade 10 pupils at Seatides Secondary are Zulu-speaking, they are studying Afrikaans this year. At Dannhauser Secondary, 49 Zulu-speaking pupils are studying Afrikaans.

The principals of both schools said Zulu had not been offered to pupils because they had not been exposed to it in the preceding grades.

Gugu Ngobese, Zulu subject adviser for the eThekwini region in KwaZulu-Natal, accused some former Model C schools of not offering Zulu, even as an optional language ” and even when 75% of their pupils were African.

A senior official in the Zulu subject advisory committee in KwaZulu-Natal said some schools devised a curriculum that suited the teachers. œThey will say, (152)˜We don™t have teachers to teach Zulu, so how can we offer it?™

Professor Crain Soudien, director of the School of Education at the University of Cape Town, said the high number of pupils writing English as a first language reflected the aspirations that parents had for their children.

œMany people are moving their children™s education away from mother tongue to English. It™s a worrying trend, but is in keeping with the growth of the black middle class, who want their children to be educated in English.

Penny Vinjevold, the Education Department™s deputy director-general for further education and training, said: œObviously, nobody is going to take an indigenous African language as a second language without having done it at primary school.

She said more needed to be done œto encourage learners and schools to offer another additional language rather than only Afrikaans.

Source: Sunday Times
URL: Source: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article…br>[Posted by: ]