Maties no longer 'Afrikaans first'
The University of Stellenbosch will introduce English as a primary language from next year, the institution said on Friday.
The institution said its management team had been in discussion with various student groups over the past months and received feedback and input related to classroom experiences from the Open Stellenbosch movement, the Student Representative Council and the SA Students Congress (Sasco).
The university said language task teams have since been considering various options for - amongst others - best practice in language implementation in 2016.
Since English is a common language of learning in South Africa, all classes at Stellenbosch University will be facilitated in English, and substantial academic support will be provided in other South African languages according to students needs, the university said in a statement. At the same time, by means of its Language Policy and Language Plan, the university says it will be creating spaces within which English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and other languages can flourish.
This marks a victory for the Open Stellenbosch movement which was formed by students at the institution earlier this year to address issues of transformation and exclusion from some academic programmes at the institution.
Earlier this year, a documentary called Luister chronicling racism linked tightly to the language policy at the university went viral after it was posted to social media, drawing widespread criticism against the institution.