Ithuba in the News"Children belonging to the peoples concerned shall, wherever practicable, be taught to read and write in their own indigenous language or in the language most commonly used by the group to which they belong. When this is not practicable, the competent authorities shall undertake consultations with these peoples with a view to the adoption of measures to achieve this objective. Adequate measures shall be taken to ensure that these people have the opportunity to attain fluency in the national language or in one of the official languages of the country. Measures shall be taken to preserve and promote the development and practice of the indigenous languages of the peoples concerned." Mother-tongue instruction presupposes that there are sufficient reading materials from which learners can learn. As we all know, this is not so in the case of African languages of South Africa. The stories you have authored are about your experiences and therefore should find resonance with your learners and fellow teachers in the classrooms. I congratulate the author-teachers once more. I hope that you will write many more books. You have learned the skills of writing, of documenting your everyday experiences. Go share them with your fellow teachers and together let us work towards turning this nation into a nation of life-long readers with sufficient and relevant resources in all official languages. |
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