DA calls for moratorium on Mandarin plan
21 April 2016
A reply to a DA parliamentary question reveals Minister Motshekga’s five-year plan to introduce Mandarin as a subject in 500 South African schools.
Motshekga’s Mandarin plan appears to be ill conceived. For example, in her reply, Minister Motshekga admits that there is just one South African teacher who is currently qualified to teach Mandarin.
As part of her plan, Minister Motshekga promises to send 100 South African teachers to be trained in China per year. Experts, however, estimate that it takes up to six years of full-time training to become a proficient Mandarin teacher.
There is nothing wrong, in principle, with giving children the choice of studying Mandarin. But serious questions need to be asked over the feasibility and desirability of Minister Motshekga’s plan.
These include:
1. What will the rollout of Mandarin to 500 schools cost, and which important line items in the Education budget will get squeezed?
2. Should the training of teachers in other important subjects such as African languages, mathematics and science not be prioritised over Mandarin?
3. Will it be possible for South African teachers to master Mandarin, as well as the teaching of it, in the time allocated for their training?
4. Will the 500 schools earmarked for Mandarin be forced to offer it as a subject? What if they refuse?
5. What is the demand amongst South African learners to take Mandarin as an additional language? Does the demand justify the plan to roll it out in 500 schools?
These are the questions Minister Motshekga needs to answer before forging ahead with her Mandarin plan. Above all, she needs to convince the public that rolling out Mandarin is more important than fixing the low levels of literacy and numeracy in the majority of our schools.
Instead of rushing the rollout of Mandarin, we call on Minister Motshekga to call a moratorium on it until there has been proper consultation in Parliament and with stakeholders in the education sector.
Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 21 April 2016
