MEC for the Northern Cape Department of Education has promised to meet with parents in the Namaqualand area following their complaints on the lack of English medium schools in the region. Some parents claim their children are forced to enrol at Afrikaans medium schools despite the language not being their mother tongue.
Brenda Matebe is worried because, for the past few years, she’s been struggling with the education of her children. Her daughter Yolande Makhabi’s grades have been slipping and she believes this is because she’s forced to attend an Afrikaans school. Afrikaans is her third language.
“She’s doing grade six. She’s struggling with three subjects and when the results come, you can see the reaction because she’s used to passing with flying colours.”
Makhabi says she is struggling as she can only understand English.
“It’s actually not that nice because I only understand English and the teachers can’t speak English that much. My mother actually said that we need English books to understand. Now the English books are for next year (2020), not for this year.”
Department spokesperson, Geoffery van der Merwe, says they are yet to study the feasibility of having an English medium school in the once predominately Afrikaans area.
“We are busy conducting a feasibility study to determine the need of an English medium school in the Namaqua district. We are fully aware of the demand from parents and the community. This is happening at the backdrop of government’s efforts in changing the social and economic outlook of the district.”
