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SOUTH AFRICA, June 29, 2003: The South African Hindu Maha Sabha has formed a committee to meet with Education Minister Kader Asmal to discuss the decision to remove Indian languages from the school curriculum. Last week religious and cultural leaders voiced opposition to Asmal’s decision to remove Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telegu and Urdu from the syllabus for pupils in Grade 10 to 12 from 2006. The decision to remove 12 of the 18 foreign languages at present being taught in South African schools is part of Asmal’s overhaul of the further Education and Training curriculum. “The issue is not about whether or not a language will be ‘culled’ but about the ability of the government to fund all foreign languages,” Asmal said. “The constitution requires that we promote and ensure respect for languages that are commonly used by communities in our country. However, this goal is dependent on the availability of funds.” He said the department had found that many foreign languages had very low enrollment rates in Grade 10 to 12. According to the department’s figures for the senior certificate examination in 2002, there were 13 candidates for Hindi while Arabic, one of the languages that will be kept, showed an enrollment figure of 661.

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