Locating Spaces for San Mother-Tongue Education in the South African Education Framework

Twenty five years after the advent of democracy in South Africa, indigenous language education for San communities in South Africa is a goal that still needs to be realised. There have been various attempts, though none of these have resulted in sustained programmes or projects. In particular, attempts to implement the recommendations of a report on Khoe and San language education in schools submitted to the Northern Cape Education Department (NCED) in 2001 are reviewed. Two types of language programmes are relevant, namely language revival programmes to reintroduce languages no longer spoken by communities, and mother tongue education (MTE) programmes to ensure home language maintenance. This paper will focus on the latter, namely the possibility of providing some form of MTE within the context of the two San speech communities of Platfontein township located outside Kimberley. Different scenarios are provided taking into account the South African policy environment.