Mnr die Voorsitter, die agb Minister het beheer oor die belangrikste departement in die land. Sonder 'n goedfunksionerende onderwysstelsel het ons land geen sinvolle toekoms nie. Sonder 'n onderwysstelsel wat genoeg bel in ons jongmense, begroot ons land vir 'n skrikwekkende toekoms. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Adv A D ALBERTS: Mr Chairperson, the hon Minister has control over the most important department in the country. Our country will not have a meaningful future without a well-functioning education system. Our country has to prepare for a daunting future in the absence of an education system that invests in our youth in an adequate manner.]
Futurists tell us another truism: The best way to predict the future is to create it. Now if South Africa intends to plan for a prosperous future, then we most certainly have a strange way of creating it, for it is also a fact that the state of our basic education system is not rising to the challenges of the future. Without limiting the scope of the problem, let me enumerate some matters that deserve urgent attention.
The first matter is that the high pass rate in schools masks the fact that the quality of education is substandard and will leave us with a legacy of inadequately schooled workers.
The second is that our facilities are inadequate, with too few schools being built to ensure mother-tongue instruction. The third is an inadequate curriculum. The curriculum is problematic, firstly because of its biased social science content, which sidelines and demonises the Afrikaner as having contributed only negatively to this country's development. This is not true. Secondly, the curriculum does not give enough attention to skilling our country's children in science and mathematics. Thirdly, the prescribed textbooks contain traces of hate speech and intolerance towards other cultures, including Afrikaners.
Agb Minister, enige onderwysstelsel wat gebou is op die demonisering van ' n minderheid, sal sosiale kohesie vernietig en ons sal moet begroot vir grootskaalse konflik in die toekoms. Die agb Minister moet in ag neem dat die regering verplig is om, ingevolge die internasionale reg en die Grondwet, kulturele regte, veral in die onderwys, te bevorder. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Hon Minister, any education system founded on demonising a minority will destroy social cohesion, and we will have to prepare for large-scale conflict in future. The hon Minister has to take into account the fact that the government has an obligation to promote cultural rights, especially in education, in accordance with international law and the Constitution.]
Afrikaans schools have dwindled to almost 300 at the last count. This is nonsensical in the light of government's own pronouncements that demographic reality will be the guiding light of social planning.
Afrikaans is the third largest language in the country after Zulu and Xhosa, with English in a distant sixth place. Should Afrikaans schools not actually increase in line with the demographic reality? Yet only Afrikaans schools are forced to accommodate non-Afrikaans-speaking learners. This inevitably leads to the anglicisation of Afrikaans schools and the destruction of a culture.
We have advice on how the Minister can address this human rights concern. The answer lies in mother-tongue instruction in all 11 official languages. That means the Minister will have to build more schools for all language segments. The Minister will then also see that due to mother-tongue instruction - not English as first language, which is some people's fourth or fifth language - the quality of education will increase. It will be a win-win situation for everyone.
Agb Minister, erken jy 'n taal, dan erken jy 'n volk. En as jy 'n volk erken, wen jy hulle goeie trou om 'n sinvolle toekoms vir almal in Suid- Afrika te skep. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Hon Minister, when you acknowledge a language, you acknowledge a nation. And when you acknowledge a nation, you win their good faith to create a meaningful future for everybody in South Africa.]