Failing public education system in SA has doomed multilingualism

Learning in one's mother tongue has proven benefits, yet locally it's but a distant dream. By William Gumede

- William Gumede

Children who learn subjects in their mother tongue or first language have lesser cognitive

(Photo: Linked In)

There are calls for mother tongue education in many multilingual societies around the world, at least in the early school years.

Many multilingual countries are exploring ways to introduce mother tongue education to lift formerly marginalised languages to equality with dominant colonial languages. But some countries are also pushing for mother tongue language education to improve poor educational outcomes.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has been advocating multilingual education based on the mother tongue from the earliest years of schooling, saying it improves learning outcomes and academic performance. Research from the Indian Statistical Institute reported that learners educated in their mother tongue experienced a 12% improvement in reading skills and a 20% increase in mathematics proficiency compared with those learning in their second language. This is due to learners having lesser cognitive burdens.

Multilingual countries have tried to grapple with the issue of mother tongue education to foster language equality and nation building in different ways.

In Singapore, people of Chinese origin make up about 75% of the population. Singapore has expressly prioritised a commitment to multi-ethnicity as the country's dominant identity rather than governing it as a Chinese majority nation.

Singapore's governing People's Action Party has sought to establish itself as a multiracial movement that is genuinely multi-ethnic, unlike many African liberation and independence movements that may say they are overseeing multi-ethnic nations, but in reality they see their countries as one-ethnicity-dominated nations.