South Africa’s diverse languages, and schools’ language of instruction is impacting learners. This is one of the issues raised by the Basic Education Department’s Director of National Assessments Dr Mark Chetty.

He was speaking after the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study showed that out of 59 countries South Africa’s Grade 5 pupils who took a grade 4 level test came in last place for both subjects.

Chetty said that one of the contributing factors is that children, especially those who do not have English or Afrikaans as a home language, are being forced to learn in one of these languages, which steepens the learning curve.

He added that in the foundation phase, children have the right to learn in their home language, but once they reach the higher grades, they need to make the shift to either English or Afrikaans.