San children are not taught effectively in their mother language as teachers are often not from the San community and are taught in either Afrikaans or English.
This leads to children not being able to grasp concepts in the various subjects, says Maria Tharacky Namupala, regional education advisor for the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA).
“Many of these teachers lack a direct understanding of sensitivity towards our cultural norms, values and beliefs.
Being able to read in one’s mother tongue means, for most minority language pupils, being able to crack the reading code in the language they know best. Reading provides and opportunity for learning and gaining new experiences. It also involves participating in a text culture and developing the ability to understand and interpret a variety of texts,” said Namupala.
According to Brighten Simasiku, Namibian Support Unit Manager of WIMSA, almost all major research has found that drop out rates are high amongst San learners especially during or just after primary school and only a handful San make it to tertiary education.
“Specific challenges include bullying, poverty, child labour, teenage pregnancy and language issues. Mother-tongue learning – associated with higher retention rates particularly in the lower years is limited for San languages. Challenges for mother-tongue arise from lack of materials in mother-tongue, lack of a standardised linguistic orthographies and a lack of teachers available to teach in the mother-tongue,” he said.
Simasiku further said that although government has made provision that learners should be taught in their mother-tongue for the first three years of school, San children are taught in English.
“Grades 1 to 4 learners are taught in other Namibian languages including English, this being a language with which very few San are familiar. By contrast, above 60% of learners from other major language groups receive mother-tongue instruction during their first three years of schooling,” he said.
In order to address the situation, WIMSA has, in association with the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA) and National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), has launched !Kung San material recently.
The first story books in this language are expected to enhance the learning and reading ability of San learners.
WIMSA has developed an education programme for San communities within the southern African region, which includes coordinating San language development, documenting innovative approaches to San education and monitoring the status of San education in the region.