South Africa: EXCELLENT: Boers: Afrikaans instruction even more in demand – according to report
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[People think the Boers are dead … and Afrikaans is their language … be surprised! Rest assured this is due to the quality of their schools and their teachers! Jan]
To have Afrikaans as a teaching language at both school and university is considered extremely valuable by the graduating class of 2023. This was one of the findings from Solidarity Youth’s School Leavers Report, which was recently released.
The report is the third of its kind, following reports from 2021 and 2022 – studies also conducted by Solidarity’s Research Institute (SNI).
The previous reports focused exclusively on Gauteng schools, but the 2023 report is the first national report that Solidarity Youth can present.
This positive sentiment towards Afrikaans indicates a growing trend since the 2022 report when about 63% of learners expressed positivity towards Afrikaans as a teaching language at school.
In the 2023 report, which included learners from 101 schools, the following was established:
• More than 73% of learners feel positive or very positive about Afrikaans as a teaching language at school (a 10% increase).
• Only about 1% of learners feel negative about Afrikaans as a teaching language at school.
Regarding tertiary education, there is a need among school leavers to receive it in their mother tongue:
• Nearly 50% indicated that they would like to continue studying in Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.
• These learners say they want to do this precisely because Afrikaans, as their home language, is more understandable to them.
The vast majority of learners indicated that they intend to continue studying after school:
• 82.88% of learners want to study further after school.
• 12.47% are unsure about what they want to do after school.
• 4.65% indicated that they will not continue studying further.
However, more than 40% of students who indicated they want to study further also said they do not have funding for their studies.
The most popular field of study among school leavers is education, while most prospective students are aiming for various medical fields of study.
The report also makes several other findings about the intentions of the class of 2023.
According to Johnell van Vollenhoven, an education researcher affiliated with SNI, the trends revealed in the report can help better understand the youth’s needs regarding their studies and careers.
"It is remarkable how popular Afrikaans as a teaching language truly is and how clearly learners understand its practical implications.
"The role of Afrikaans schools in South Africa is certainly not outdated, and the demand for tertiary institutions where Afrikaans-speaking learners can receive further education in Afrikaans is also not diminishing," Van Vollenhoven concluded.
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