A group of Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students took to the streets of Stellenbosch University (SU) on Friday to protest, following months of conflict between a group of students and educational-psychology lecturer, Karlien Conradie, regarding the language of instruction in her classroom.
PGCE student Abenathi Makinana during protest. PHOTO: Aaliyah Davids
About fifty students walked from the Van der Sterr building to G.G. Cillié, home to the Faculty of Education. Once there, PGCE student Nomonde Mngcongo, read out a memorandum to the crowd.
“We demand that Ms Conradie be held accountable for the discriminatory remarks she made in class, as she has acted against the values of the university—of this institution, such as inclusivity,” said Mngcongo.
Mngcongo then handed over the students’ memorandum to the Acting Dean of Education, Professor Johan Malan. Conradie could be clearly seen inside the building observing the protest from the second floor.
This follows the faculty’s decision to separate the educational-psychology class into English and Afrikaans. Conradie offered no comment on the protest, nor on the mass meeting that took place on the Rooiplein on Wednesday, 24 April.
Read about what led to the decision to separate classes here.
Mngcongo along with another PGCE student, Abenathi Makinana, organised the mass meeting. Mngcongo says that they identify themselves as “concerned students representing those who are also concerned, and whose main purpose is to ensure that the next PGCE class will not experience what we are experiencing”.
After outlining the events that led to calling the meeting, Mncongo and Makinana opened the floor to others students. Several PGCE students—as well as one social science student—came forward to voice their grievances concerning the use of Afrikaans as a teaching medium at SU.
“We suffer the most. And as we are suffering, I think this thing of Afrikaans needs to come to an end. Afrikaans is being used as a language of exclusion,” claimed one student.
It was then announced that there would be a protest.
When asked for comment on the protest, Malan said that it was a pity that vital evidence pertaining to the situation had only been submitted on Thursday.
“We are studying the new information, and it is anticipated that it will allow us to act decisively to restore the order and to return to a unified classroom situation as soon as possible,” says Malan.