Abstract
M.A. (Applied Linguistics)
In June 1991 Parliament passed the following amendment to paragraph (b) of Section 3 of Act 90 of 1979: that the language or languages to be used as the medium of
instruction at a school and the extent and duration of such use shall be determined by the Minister after consultation with the parents of pupils enrolled at that school, which
consultation shall take place in the manner as prescribed.
Act 90 of 1979 is the Education and Training act which legislates for black education under the control of the Department of Education and Training. The education epartments in the self-governing states tend to align themselves with DET policy, but the TBVC states have acted independently even though there have been correspondences between their policies and the DET's which might suggest otherwise.
The amendment replaces the following wording of paragraph (b): that the universally accepted principle of mother-tongue instruction be observed: Provided that this principle shall be applied at least up to and including Standard two: Provided further that the wishes of the parents shall be taken into consideration in the application of this principle
after Standard two, and also in the choice of one of the official languages as the medium of instruction where the mother tongue cannot be used as the medium of instruction after Standard two.
The essential difference between the two is that the original wording prohibited the use of any medium other than the mother tongue before Standard 3 whereas the amendment does not. Both versions make prov1s1on for the wishes of parents to influence but not actually to determine language policy: the Minister reserves the right to do that. The 1991 amendment legislates in favour of the options listed in section 7.11 of the White Paper on the Provision of Education in the Republic of South Africa of 1983 quoted below, which in turn quotes at length from the report of the Education Working Party of the HSRC De Lange Commission. Paragraphs (a) to (e) acknowledge the desirability of mother tongue instruction and of developing African languages accordingly, but paragraphs (f) and (g) imply that the then current language medium policy of mother tongue for at least the first four years was not necessarily the best one, and that "pragmatic approaches to the language medium problem include the use of English from Sub A".