The Sunday News
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is mobilising resources to build a school for the San-speaking community in Tsholotsho as a way of preserving their culture which is facing possible extinction.
Deputy Education Minister Professor Paul Mavhima said his ministry was touched by recent revelations that there were only eight San-speaking people left in the country. He said the move to build a new school was in line with the ministry’s agenda of ensuring that indigenous languages are taught in schools throughout the country.
“We are in the process of developing a school for the San community. We hope that the school will preserve their culture especially their language which is facing possible extinction. We are therefore optimistic that the school will play a big role in promoting the revival of the San culture,” said Prof Mavhima.
“As the ministry we are doing everything to ensure that schools have proper infrastructure that is accessible to pupils with disabilities. We are promoting the learning of indigenous languages in line with our Constitution which recognises 16 official languages.”
Chapter 1 Section 6 (1) of the Constitution states that Khoisan is among the 16 official languages that are recognised in Zimbabwe. The other official languages are Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sign Language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa.
Teacher training institutions in the country have already introduced indigenous languages in their curriculum. Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic is one of the institutions which offers SeSotho, TjiKalanga, TshiVenda, isiNdebele and ChiShona.
The Sunday News recently established that San language faces possible extinction in Zimbabwe as only eight elderly people could speak four of the language’s dialects, while two dialects no longer have speakers in the country.
Mr Davy Ndlovu, the co-ordinator for the San community, said the development was music to their ears because it was every villager’s wish to have their language and culture revived.
“We are happy that the Government is taking an initiative to assist us in reviving our culture which is dying. We once talked to them and they assured us that the school will soon be in place. As the community, we already have the site. For the training of teachers, when we met the ministry representative, we agreed that we will identify teachers form local schools that will then go and learn the language which they can come and teach. At the moment we are developing literature in consultation with our colleagues in Botswana,” said Mr Ndlovu.
