South Africa’s University of Stellenbosch has stopped teaching in Afrikaans after students protested that it was a language they identify with apartheid.
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“International recognised best practices prove that mother tongue education is the best option for students and further also supports the presentation of education in high function languages that are used in the vicinity of a tertiary institution”, she said.
But the university says, most classes should be facilitated in English first.
“The primary language of communication and administration at Stellenbosch University will be English, with Afrikaans and IsiXhosa as additional languages”, the university said in a statement.
Students at Stellenbosch, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Cape Town, protested that Afrikaans was the language of oppression and its use as the teaching medium disadvantaged blacks.
The statement concerning the changing in language policy at University of Stellenbosch (US) is proof that any allegations regarding their appreciating and dedication towards Afrikaans education are nothing more than lip service, according to AfriForum.
“At the same time, by means of its language policy and language plan, the university is committed to the creation of spaces within which English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and other languages can flourish”. The additional languages may not be used to exclude anyone from full participation at the University.
The team said in its statement on Thursday that it supported these principles, “as points of departure related to the language policy and language implementation”.
A group which campaigned for the change, Open Stellenbosch, wrote in a Facebook post: “The doors of learning and culture shall be opened to all”.
Tensions at the campus, where then-professor Hendrik Verwoerd helped to define the racial ideology that he later turned into national apartheid policy, boiled over in September as students demanded to be taught in English.
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A university council meeting plans to further discuss the issue, at the end of the month. “In particular we remember the students of 1976”. But the institution persisted in staunchly defending its Afrikaans language policy.
