Mother tongue education in South Africa yielding promising results

Theres a lot that we here in Australia can learn from the Eastern Cape, South Africa’s poorest province.

Last year their provincial government launched a project to advance mother tongue-based education to the first six years of schooling. This policy is being incrementally introduced in 23 school districts and should cover all public schools in the province by 2016. Despite widespread prejucide against African langauges,  provincial administrators are determined to allow first language education for all grade 1-6 students in the province.

Research shows promising results for  matriculants who were African-language speakers, their pass rates increasing from 43.5% in 1955 to 83.7% in 1976. To read more, click on this article from the Mail&Guardian:

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-03-16-a-boost-for-mothertongue-learning