This came to the fore Wednesday morning during the commemoration of International Mother Language Day at the University of Botswana. The event, which is held yearly on February 21, was celebrated under the theme, ‘Multilingual education: A pillar of learning and intergenerational learning’.
At the celebration, which is designated by UNESCO to promote linguistic and cultural diversity to honour the importance of mother tongues, speakers said Batswana continue to fail to appreciate the use of their mother language. Head of Department (HOD) in the Faculty of Humanities, Dr Peter Sebina, bemoaned that Batswana are not proud of their languages but pride themselves on being a democratic society. “As a country that prides itself in democracy, we should also do it with the languages that we have in our own country,” Sebina said.
Sebina said, just like the European countries, he wishes to see many products or university institutions issuing instructions in their native languages. “Botswana is blessed with many languages but I wish to see in future Botswana and UB where communication, instructions are not done in French, Portuguese or Arabic but our own languages,” he said.
Due to the concerns that native languages are in danger of dying, the Chief Education Officer in Curriculum Development at the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MESD), Badisa Letlotlo, stated that the government has seen the need to offer the languages in the curriculum. Letlotlo said the government undertook deliberate measures to promote the use of other languages spoken in the country. “This year is also a momentously historic for us at the ministry where Botswana local languages were introduced at primary schools. And we are embracing this culture that no student is left behind because of the language barriers,” Letlotlo said. Letlotlo highlighted that for years, most students have not performed well because of the language barriers and now the government wants to change so that students can learn through their mother tongue language.
“It is important to learn through our own language, know our languages and our values. This is so that as a nation we can thrive on our own languages,” he said. Furthermore, Letlotlo reminded the meeting that language forms part of a culture, therefore, culture could not be celebrated without language.
“Our challenges can be overcome by democratising the curriculum so that students who do not know Setswana or English can still be able to learn through their mother languages,” he highlighted. To foster social justice and inclusiveness, Letlotlo said he feels that primary schools are a great step towards preserving languages and becoming multilingual communities as they wish. He said some of the languages that have been adopted by the primary schools include sign language, Afrikaans, Hambukushu, Kalanga and Otjiherero. As part of the commemoration, there were also performances from local poets, traditional groups, and musicians.
