Bakalanga given hope

EDWARD MPOLOKA
Correspondent | Wednesday October 5, 2011 00:00

 

The willingness of the ministry to dialogue is the culmination of two years  of consultations between Bakalanga representatives and the ministry.

On October 3, 2009 Domboshaba Cultural Trust wrote a letter to the ministry on the authority of the Domboshaba Festival of Culture and History. Co-signed by the chairman and secretary of the Trust, Modisaotsile Mothibi and Kangangwani Phatshwane respectively, the letter to the minister requested government to take active steps 'by initiating the teaching of Ikalanga in schools, essentially re-introducing the Kalanga teaching system that was in place prior to independence until government withdrew it in 1972'.

The letter from the Trust also reminded the minister that it is her ministry that should take the lead and develop suitable teaching materials, support infrastructure in the form of classrooms, equipment and teachers, budget for all these needs, seek their funding and procurement, show the will and provide the leadership needed to galvanise relevant stakeholders, including the teaching profession, other educationists, the religious fraternity or churches, international funding agencies and the communities themselves to  support the teaching of Ikalanga in schools.'

Government has always blamed its failure to introduce other languages, beside Setswana and English, to a shortage of resources. To this, Mothibi and Phatshwane said that their Trust has got no doubt that government could find the resources and make them available for the tasks they are required for. The Trust adds that the burden of creating an environment conducive to the preservation and promotion and development of Ikalanga and all other local languages through the teaching system in schools, rests squarely with the government.

The chairman and secretary of the Trust also informed the minister that since 2000, a Bakalanga writer's association, Mukani Action Campaign, has produced and published over 20 Ikalanga books, which could be used as teaching material in the teaching of Ikalanga.

The Trust is painfully aware that the ministry has introduced the teaching of French at secondary schools and Chinese at the University of Botswana (UB), pointing out, that indigenous languages currently not taught, should have been given priority over the foreign languages. The Trust adds that the teaching of Ikalanga is consistent with Vision 2016 ideals and the Kedikilwe Report, which recommended the teaching of the other local languages besides Setswana.

In February last year, the MoESD wrote to the Trust indicating that due to lack of resources, Ikalanga could not be reintroduced in schools as per the demand of the Trust. In a letter dated August 13th, the Trust wrote back to the minister making the same demands prompting the envisaged meeting with all the cultural groups to discuss the teaching of the mother tongue.