Language equity and assessment in South African education

Abstract

This paper argues that language and assessment are closely linked and that the Language-in-Education policy and other additive bilingual initiatives have failed to address educational equity in South African schools. Despite the aspirations of politicians to move towards a policy of multiculturalism through the additive approach to bilingualism in education, it is the opinion of this study, that this policy essentially remains a symbolic gesture. aims to redress the injustice of apartheid, where two languages, English and Afrikaans, were given status and privilege over all other languages. Eleven languages, nine African languages together with English and Afrikaans are now recognised as official languages. In the LANTAG Report it is stated that [e]very person shall have the right to basic education and equal access to educational institutions, to instruction in the language of his or her choice whenever this is reasonably practicable, and to establish, where practicable, educational institutions based on a common culture, language or religion, provided that there should be no discrimination on the grounds of race (Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, 1996: 43). There is a perception that the vision of the ANC to redress inequities of the past by offering all South Africans the use of the language of their choice to provide equal opportunities to teaching and learning, is likely to remain a symbolic gesture in the foreseeable future. The South African government has not shown commitment to the resourcing of multilingualism or the additive bilingualism model in a coordinated , systematic way. The financial and human resources that are required to implement the language-in-education policy are not readily available. As a result of the functional and economic value attached to English both nationally and globally, the economic * Article based on research for an M.A. in the Department of Linguistics and Literary Theory, RAU, prepared under the supervision of Prof. Henk Kroes. T