Other Afrikaans schools' say ‘welkom’ to English-speaking pupils​

While Hoërskool  Overvaal in Vereeniging refuses to admit 55 black English-speaking pupils, many other Afrikaans schools have become multilingual.

Among the most recent to do so are Hoërskool  Jan Viljoen and Hoërskool Riebeeckrand in Randfontein on the Gauteng West Rand.  Both will each admit up to 105 English-speaking Grade 8 pupils this year.

Hoërskool Riebeeckrand principal Annelize van den Berg said: “I think it’s the correct decision that we’ve made and I feel good about it. Nobody came to me to say: ‘We don’t like it; we don’t want it.’

“The teachers and other learners are very positive. I am really experiencing a good feeling among the teachers about this.”

This week violent protest broke at Hoërskool Overvaal since  a court ruled that Overvaal did not have to accept 55 English-speaking pupils into the Afrikaans-medium school. 

Read more about the two success cases where language barriers did not prevent education in the Sunday Times