The DBE remains resolute towards decolonising the education system in South Africa. The Department, through its newly established Language Unit, organised a 3-day workshop on the versioning of Grade 4 Mathematics and Natural Sciences into official African Languages. National and provincial experts specialising in Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology were identified to explore ways to accelerate the versioning processes through consultation of relevant education materials at hand. During the workshop proceedings, the participants applauded the DBE for its determination towards the transformation of the education landscape in the country, particularly in using African languages as languages of learning, teaching and assessment. The workshop comes after the Language Policy Conference that was held in July 2023, where corpus planning was emphasised as one of the key points to start preparing the system.

Participants said that the workshop assisted them to learn from the Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE), which is a reliable prototype for the country on Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education (MTBBE) in IsiXhosa and Sesotho. “The non-use of African languages as languages of teaching, learning and assessment creates a linguistic barrier to isiXhosa and Sesotho learners in the Eastern Cape Province. The academic language used in subject content becomes so specialised and complicates the content matter because these learners are dependent on dual translation from home language(s) to English. As a result, most learners fail not because they are not knowledgeable, but because they fail to conceptualise and articulate what is required by questions during tests and exams,” said Dr Zola Wababa, Director for the Language Unit in the ECDoE. Furthermore, he added that participants should use a functional approach of versioning since the meaning of the subject matter was deemed necessary in the process. 

During the workshop, various translation methods such as versioning, adapting, transliteration and localising were employed to produce meaning and readable text. These strategies were used to maintain the meaning of the subject matter into target African languages. The PEDs identified and selected district officials and teachers based on subject matter and the knowledge of the African language. These versioners were supported by a team of linguists from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) for each language and were allowed to exchange versioned workbooks to authenticate or verify meaning of their versioned product, such that text does not lose its mathematical and science meaning. A variety of material and multilingual dictionaries were made available during the workshop.

Dr Naledi Mbude-Mehana, DDG for the National Language Unit said that African languages should be fully developed to become languages of learning, teaching and assessment at the level of English and Afrikaans as enshrined in the Constitution. “Since 1994, the South African Education system has undergone a major transformation process to address the inequalities created by Apartheid education policies. From Curriculum 2005 to CAPS, several scientifically researched studies confirm that English as an academic language for most learners who speak African languages becomes a barrier that leads to misunderstanding of content and ultimately misinterpretation of questions which consequently leads to poor performance. The non-use of African languages as languages of teaching, learning and assessment creates a linguistic barrier to learners whose mother tongue is African languages. The versioning process will ensure that schools view multilingualism as a solution to identifiable learning deficits across the curriculum.”

The DBE is currently preparing the system by undergoing all language planning stages: Status, Corpus, Acquisition and Prestige. These are critical planning stages that will ensure that everyone is on board and playing the part in decolonising the education system. There will be strands of implementation, whereby the strategic focus is currently on Grade 4 from 2023 to 2025 academic year and incrementally implement up to Grade 6 in 2027. Mr Julius Dantile from PanSALB assured the DBE that they will continue to play their role as the language board to quality assure and authenticate the versioned material. A monitoring and evaluation component will be infused throughout the implementation stages to assess gains, challenges and remediation where necessary.