Staff Reporter
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has urged parents and schools to use home languages as a foundation for learning.
“A child’s mother tongue language should never be a barrier to learning. It should be a bridge,” Gwarube said.
“Learners struggle not because they lack the ability, but because they are being taught in a language they do not fully understand,” she said in a personal message broadcast from her X account in commemoration of International Mother Language Day on Saturday.
“When a child cannot understand what is being taught, they cannot create meaning, they cannot grasp mathematical concepts, and they cannot build confidence,” she said.
“That is why we are strengthening mother tongue based bilingual education.”
Gwarube said the department’s focus this term was “to ensure that all learners are able to understand for meaning what is being taught to them in the classroom.”
Early teaching in a home language builds stronger literacy and numeracy foundations that help pupils later in gateway subjects, she said.
“Your language is a tool for learning,” she said. “In a country as beautifully diverse as South Africa, our languages are a national treasure. They carry our stories, our history and our hopes for the future.”
The Department of Basic Education said on Saturday it was expanding Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education (MTbBE), warning that fewer than a quarter of South Africans can access sustained mother tongue education beyond Grade 3.
Gwarube encouraged families to actively use home languages with children: “I encourage parents to speak, read, sing to their children,” she said, adding that “protecting and promoting our languages will help build a more inclusive and equal society.”
International Mother Language Day is observed annually on 21 February and is backed by UNESCO, which this year highlighted “Youth voices on multilingual education” as a global theme.
INSIDE EDUCATION
