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rfmcdonaldBlack parents increasingly have chosen mother-tongue education instead of English in the past few years for their children in the foundation phase (Grade 1 to Grade 3) of their education.
This was a conclusion of a recently publicised study done by the director and head of the socio-economic surveys division of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Dr Joseph Mbithi wa Kivilu.
Wa Kivulu said that although there was consensus that mother-tongue education was best in early school education, there was still a meaningful public alliance to English.
This was a lot less prevalent among Afrikaans speakers.
The study took place between 2003 and 2006 among nearly 3 000 respondents.
The respondents comprised of 62.8% black people, 15.7% brown people, 9.9% Indians and 11.6% whites.
Respondents were asked what they thought the medium of instruction should be in different phases of education.
In the initial study in 2003, the majority of respondents - except Afrikaans-speakers - preferred English, even in the foundation phase.
It was found that race, monthly income and level of education were the main influences on the decision.
As far as race was concerned, Indian people followed by black people were more prone to choosing English as the language of preference in the foundation phase than whites.
Those without income were more prone to choose English in this phase than people who were better-off.
This tendency declined as income increased.
As Jacques Leclerc argues in his survey of the South African linguistic situation, official policies of multilingualism aren't often reflected on the ground, with the traditionally dominant languages of Afrikaans and especially English remaining more prestigious and in wider use than the various relatively less advantaged (in terms of mass media, economic, educational, and governmental power) Bantu languages spoken (so far, at least) as mother tongues by something like three-quarters of the population. Part of this might also have to do with reaction against apartheid, when members of different ethnic groups were forced to remain members of these ethnolinguistic groups so as to accentuate divisions among South Africa's non-whites, these ethnolinguistic groups in turn being inherently subordinate and second-class; a great way to make people reject traditions of any kind is to make them hate the traditions as confining, even demeaning.
Ian Bekker's study of the situation facing isiXhosa doesn't preclude the possibility that speakers of the Xhosa ethnic language might be moving towards English monolingualism. As Leclerc notes, the possibility exists that multiethnic South Africa might evolve into a thoroughly Anglophone country.
