African languages to be taught in all South African schools by 2018

The Department of Basic Education is pulling out all the stops to ensure all 3 558 schools offer at least one African language.

The Department of Basic Education says it will try to get all the schools who don’t already offer African languages to do so by 2018.

Department of Basic Education spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, says there are making progress in ensuring that schools offer African languages.

He says that the Minister made this announcement in 2013 and it was implemented in 2016. Out of the 3558 schools which didn't offer an African language, now 970 which do.

We are making progress although very slow. All provinces have committed to making sure that this initiative is very successful.

Elijah Mhlanga, Spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education

Mhlanga says they are now facing challenges of not having enough teachers to teach African languages. He says they've been doing well in producing necessary materials for schools to be able to implement this policy.

We have enhanced our recruitment to make sure we attract as many young people as possible to take up teaching as a profession particularly in teaching African languages.

Elijah Mhlanga, Spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education

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