Home Language Choices at Former Model C Schools in Democratic South Africa: A Management and Governance Perspective

Abstract

The Department of Basic Education mandates that students in primary and secondary school acquire a home language as well as at least one first foreign language. African learners are taught English as their home language in the majority of former Model C schools, despite the fact that it is not their mother tongue. Their first additional language is their mother tongue. Former Model C schools appear to have institutionalised home language imposition. The article presents evidence from an investigation into home language choices at former white state schools, as well as a viewpoint on the roles that Department of Education managers and governors should play at the school level to pave the way for fair home language choices at former Model C schools. The data was collected statistically, and the study findings revealed that the majority of learners’ mother tongue was isiZulu, but the language was not given as a home language. We decided that the Department of Basic Education should guarantee that African languages are introduced as home languages in former white schools’ school curricula.