Eastern languages teachers claim Eastern languages are being marginalised

By Subry Govender

 

 

Mrs Oumah Lautan(Ottawa), Mrs Coopamah Muthumanikam(Phoenix), Mrs Zainab Suleiman (Phoenix), Mrs Sushila Velen (Phoenix) and two other teachers. 

 

Eastern language teachers in KwaZulu-Natal are up in arms that the teaching and learning of Eastern languages is being made more difficult by the day.
This despite the fact that a new policy document,  Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), has been introduced to allow for the teaching and learning of Tamil,  Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, and Arabic in schools as  additional languages and allowed  school time to be extended by one-and-half-hours.
A group of teachers held a meeting at the Phoenix Teachers' Centre on Friday and also held a meeting with members of the Tamil Action Group(TAG) at the Mariammen Temple in Mount Edgecombe on Sunday.
They claim that in many instances school authorities are using the new CAPS policy to abolish the teaching of Eastern languages during normal school hours.
"Instead of including the teaching of Eastern languages during normal school hours, most schools want the languages to be taught after hours," said Mrs Coopamah Muthumanikam, a Tamil teacher in Phoenix.
Mrs Muthumanikam said the new "after hours" policy was not acceptable to parents and teachers because pupils had to participate in sports and other extra activities.
"There's also concern about safety and security for our children," she said.
Two other teachers, Mrs Ouma Lautan of Ottawa, and Mrs Zainab Suleiman of Phoenix, said it was unacceptable that they should once again struggle to get Eastern languages taught in their schools.
"During the days of apartheid we had to fight to get Eastern languages taught in our schools and now it seems we have to fight again," said Mrs Suleiman.
"There were more than 75 000 learners studying Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu and Arabic in our schools last year and there were more more than 400 teachers involved," said Mrs Suleiman.
"But the introduction of the new policy has led to the disruption of the teaching of these languages in our schools and vernacular teachers have been thrown into a state of uncertainity.
"We don't know why this is being done to us. We are South Africans as well and the teaching of our mother tongue languages must be a right. We should not go cap in hand and beg."
Another teacher, Mrs Sushila Velen, said their plight was due to the fact that school authorities were not strong enough to commit themselves to the teaching of the vernacular languages.
"We are really being messed around," she said.

                                                        Mr Vishnu Naidoo

Mr Vishu Naidoo, the principal of the Buffelsdale Secondary School and convenor of the Southern African Eastern Languages Association, said as a result of representations to the National Education Department they had been successful in getting Eastern languages included in the curriculum from Grades 4 to 12 as Second Additional Languages.
He said the inclusion of Eastern languages, except Sanskrit, would be found in the National Education Department's website.
"You will see the 2nd Additional Language being signed as policy by the Minister of Education. You will notice all the Eastern languages except Sanskrit.
"This is the first time in the history of the country that Eastern languages are in the curriculum," he said.
"We have received a letter from the Director General of National Basic Education allowing all governing bodies to extend the school day and offer the Eastern language at Home Language, First Additional or Second Additional.
"In my school for instance Eastern languages are taught without any problems and the teachers are part of the staff.
"I think the problem in other schools is that principals and teachers are not strong enough to stand up for their rights."
Mr Naidoo said it seemed some of the problems being experienced was the direct result of the additional hours being "deliberately left out by some one in the department" from the document in the Education Department's website.
"We were in contact with the Minister's Personal Assistant and this was pointed out to the Minister. She chose to ask a Mr Kriel to address this issue. This person had no clue about the documents I mentioned. I find it unacceptable that the Minister chooses a 'white' person to pronounce on Eastern languages.
"I even wrote to the President’s office but have received no response. But we have support from the Premier of KZN for the Eastern languages."
Mr Naidoo added that "to add insult to injury Mr Enver Surty, the Deputy Minister of Education, who has no clue about the documents on the department's website, refers to Indians as immigrants".
"I am surprised that the people of Indian origin are accepting this lying down. It is time for the Indian-origin Community to take action against an insensitive Department of Education. We should start rolling mass action against the department.
"The Minister, Angie Motshekga, told me that we can do want we want. It is obvious that she is treating the Indian-origin Community with disrespect. When you disrespect our language then you disrespect our culture and our religion."
He added: "We are making a special appeal to every religious and cultural organisation in every area to influence the governing bodies and parents to introduce the languages in the Foundation Phase and to continue with the languages in the Intermediate Phase. This is the turning point for the introduction of Eastern languages. The apartheid government denied us our fundamental right to promote our languages.
"Our languages give expression to our cultures. For us this is a human rights issue."
Mr Dees Pillay, a senior official of the Tamil Action Group, said they had been told that vernacular language teachers were experiencing problems in Phoenix, Chatsworth, Pietermaritzburg, Port Shepstone, Umzinto, and other areas.
He said it seemed that organisations representing the various Indian-origin communities were not taking up the cultural problems of the communities they were supposed to represent.
"We don't have a single leader of the calibre of Dr Monty Naicker, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Kesaval Goonam, Mrs Fatima Meer or Ismail Meer to represent us any more".
"What a tragedy that in our new non-racial democracy we have to fight to get Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Arabic included in our school syllabus during normal school times.
"If we had leaders of the stature of the Naickers, Dadoos and Goonam, I don't think we would experience these problems. They would have made strong representations to the Government about our cultural needs. Dr Naicker infact was very committed to the promotion of our culturess, languages and traditions," said Mr Pillay. ends