Solidarity slams government over intimidation of teachers

6 September 2023

The Solidarity Teachers’ Network will not tolerate the government’s intimidation of teachers because of language policy and admission.

This comes in response to statements from the Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Dr Reginah Mhaule, in which she claimed that Afrikaans teachers must also teach in English when English learners want to attend their school.

Mhaule made this statement in view of the discussions on the Basic Education Amendment Bill (BELA) currently in progress. Among other things, these laws aim to transfer the decision-making about schools’ language and admission policy from governing bodies to government departments.

According to Johan Botha, head of Solidarity’s Teachers’ Network, the real purpose of these statements is to create hostility in society towards Afrikaans and to remove Afrikaans as a language of instruction from the education system.

Botha believes the government is making Afrikaans a scapegoat to cover up its own failures in education and to canvass potential voters by capturing schools.

“The deputy minister’s statements are hugely irresponsible. She is creating an expectation among learners that they can simply turn up at Afrikaans schools and then receive their education in English.

“This is a blatant undermining of mother tongue education and of school governing bodies’ right to adopt and maintain a single medium language policy for a school,” Botha says.

Botha believes that by making these statements the deputy minister is trying to intimidate teachers in Afrikaans schools from her position of power.

“To insist on tuition in English while the school is an Afrikaans school is unreasonable and it is indicative of a government that wants to bully teachers into realising its ideologies. The deputy minister is deliberately inciting the education landscape against Afrikaans.

“Mhaule is putting Afrikaans teachers unnecessarily in the firing line. She could much rather focus on providing teachers with more resources and more capacity,” Botha contended.

According to Solidarity, the Education Department is in fact the one that wants to use language to exclude people. Mhaule’s statements that the government does value mother tongue education are, according to Botha, mere lip service.

“The government’s sights are much rather set on destroying Afrikaans as language of instruction in public schools,” he said.

Johnell van Vollenhoven, education researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), says the deputy minister’s observation that there are some groups that want to protect schools was indeed spot on.

The truth is that public schools belong to school communities. It is every community’s right, and in this instance, even duty to defend their school against a government that is power hungry.

“The government is not building schools and is not paying attention to mother tongue education. Instead of striving towards quality education, they are trying to capture schools and by blaming they are sowing division, thereby acting in the best interests of none other than the ANC,” Van Vollenhoven concluded.

Solidarity will protect mother tongue education, as well as Afrikaans schools and teachers against this onslaught and will not hesitate to take the BELA legislation on in court.

Issued by Johan Botha, Head: Solidarity Teachers’ Network, 6 September 2023