Should all schools in SA teach in English?

[James]

Free State University rector Jonathan Jansen is wrong if he pleads that all school education in South Africa should be in English, FF Plus leader Pieter Mulder said on Wednesday.

"He [Jansen] confuses proper education principles with his own hidden nation building recipe."

Mulder was reacting to media reports on Jansen saying teaching in English from school to university level could be the solution to South Africa's education problems.
...read more here: Should all schools in SA teach in English?

[sycogrim]

I feel that schools should teach pupils English as a subject, but what he's proposing is ridiculous.

[Ike_009]

Personally I agree with one official language in the education system.

[HavocXphere]

Yeah the 11 languages thing is pretty retarded. I can see how it was important for the whole "new South Africa"...but its really time to quit with the BS and focus on being competitive on the world stage.

[Dan]

There's a shocking amount of ignorance in some of these posts. You can't just drop people's languages, or expect vernac speakers to learn only in English; imagine the impact on our already abysmal academic performance?

Prof Jansen's intentions are spot on, I think. If you teach people in their mother tongue and make English a standard second language subject, you could theoretically maintain fair and unbiased education while still creating a foundation of a universally understood and more globally practical language.

[sycogrim]

There's a shocking amount of ignorance in some of these posts. You can't just drop people's languages, or expect vernac speakers to learn only in English; imagine the impact on our already abysmal academic performance?

Prof Jansen's intentions are spot on, I think. If you teach people in their mother tongue and make English a standard second language subject, you could theoretically maintain fair and unbiased education while still creating a foundation of a universally understood and more globally practical language.

That's what I said, just not in those exact words

[Echoriath]

I like the fact that he's always supposedly being misquoted or what he says is misinterpreted. If it happens once, yes - but on multiple occasions - suspicious

[Snoek]

I have to agree, or even limit it to 2 or 3. It's universally spoken...until the chinese take over

[Voicy]

I like the fact that he's always supposedly being misquoted or what he says is misinterpreted. If it happens once, yes - but on multiple occasions - suspicious

The big problem with Prof Jansen is he is trying to bring across an intellectual message to people who approach everything emotionally.

As an Afrikaans speaker, I agree with him completely. I ended up doing my highschool classes in English & switching over to higher grade Math in Matric in English was a bitch! I did all my studies thereafter in English and I see no point why we should bother with other languages (afr. included). It doesn't make sense. We aren't developed enough to operate independently.

You'd do yourself a big favour if you start listening more to what Prof Jansen & Moeletsi Mbeki have to say.

[Ghost29]

I think it is incredibly unfair that English and Afrikaans are the only available languages from Grade 3 to Matric. We either have to go the whole way (i.e. everyone gets mother tongue education) or English is the only medium. The first option is completely impractical, so that only leaves the second.