Opposition enters fray over language at top university

SABC News 27 March 2021

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party has launched a petition to make Afrikaans equal to English at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, reports SABC News.

The party says the aim of the petition is to protect the right to mother-tongue education against university management’s persistent attacks. In 2016 the university implemented a new language policy that elevated the status of English in an effort to avoid making black students, who are not fluent in Afrikaans, feel marginalised and excluded.

Leon Schreiber, DA shadow minister of public service and administration, says they want equality of languages. “We’ve seen over the last few years a situation where English has become the only language that is available for students to study in. What our petition is arguing for is to get to a situation where there is equality between the two, where no Afrikaans-speaking student is excluded from education and life at the university, while at the same time no student who wishes to study in English is excluded.”
Full report on the SABC News site

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