THE SILENT DECLINE OF OUR NATIVE LANGUAGES
Now that the festive season has passed, I find myself reflecting on an unsettling reality I encountered in rural communities: many young people cannot speak their native languages, and in some cases, this inability is celebrated rather than questioned. For some parents, their children’s fluency in English, often acquired through private schooling is treated as […]
MULTILINGUALISM IN EDUCATION IS OUR STRENGTH
Gender activist and author Rita Mae Brown once exquisitely said: “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” The conversation around language has been a deeply contested one, since President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, […]