The DBE is moving with speed to strengthen Foundational Learning through the implementation of Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) in Grade 4, across all nine provinces. The state of system readiness for implementation is currently at an advanced stage with stringent versioning and authentication of Grade 4 Annual Teaching Plans (ATPs) and Workbooks subject terminology and concept definitions for Terms 3 and 4 Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Technology Subjects, according to DBE’s Chief Education Specialist for Curriculum Implementation and Quality Improvement, Dr Sello Galane. In preparation for the full-scale implementation of MTbBE, the DBE recently organised a five-day workshop at Birchwood Hotel in Benoni for the acceleration of versioning and authentication of terminologies, as well as concept definitions of the two subjects for implementation in Terms 3 and 4 in the current school calendar.

“Prerequisite steps that needed to be followed in the versioning and authentication processes started with lifting key subject terminology and concepts, then giving them to the terminographers and lexicographers at the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture (DSAC), whose task is to coin terms of identified concepts in all official languages of the Republic of South Africa in terms of s6(1) of the Constitution. Once the translation process has been completed, the definitions are returned to the DBE for internal quality assurance by subject specialists. It is at this stage that the DBE and provincial subject specialists in the content subjects convene to check if the translated definitions provided by DSAC are accurate as far as the subject specific meaning is concerned. The DBE then submits the translated subject terms and concepts to the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), for verification, which escalates the process to the National Language Bodies (NLBs) for final authentication. After authentication has been successfully completed, the NLBs issue an Authentication Certificate to confirm that these subject terminology and concepts are correct in all official languages,” Dr Galane indicated.

He added that, “the DBE has fully complied with this legal requirement in that it followed the strict sense of the law when it ultimately took the Grade 4 Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Technology terminology, concepts and their definitions to the PanSALB and its National Language Bodies for the requisite respective verification and authentication to guarantee their valid use in the Basic Education Sector. This implies that any term or concept that is used in ATPs, Workbooks, Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM), must be verified and authenticated in terms of the PanSALB Act of 1995, otherwise they could be deemed invalid. In December 2024, the DBE followed the same process for Term 1 and 2 Grade 4 ATPS and Workbooks for Mathematic and Natural Science and Technology. The material was verified and authenticated, and consequently uploaded on the DBE website for implementation in January 2025. We are now working towards a verification and authentication process on the two subjects for Terms 3 and 4. The authenticated material has now been used to version the Grade 4 Mathematics and Natural Science and Technology ATPs and Workbooks, as well as quality assured the subject specific context of use in order to retain subject meaning. The authenticated Terms 3 and 4 ATPs and Workbooks will also be uploaded on the DBE website in time for implementation in Grade 4 in the current academic calendar”.

Deputy Director-General for Transformation in Education, Dr Naledi Mbude-Mehana, commended subject specialists for their commitment and dedication in assisting the Sector to reach its intended milestone in the rollout of MTbBE. She further stated that the DBE’s intention as part of the MTbBE strategy was to expand the versioning and authentication processes to other grades in General Education and Training (GET) up to Further Education and Training (FET). “We should not forget that language development in education takes decades, sometimes hundreds of years. Some even believe that we may never see particular words in our African languages. It is a lifelong process and certainly not an easy task, especially within a resource-constrained fiscal environment. We therefore look forward to receiving the authenticated materials for use in Terms 3 and 4,” she said.