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The Freedom Front Plus welcomes the Minister of Basic Education, Ms. Angie Motshekga's, agreement to a request of the party to do an independent, scientific investigation to the current state of single medium schools which offer mother tongue education in South Africa. The Minister was reacting to a question of Dr. Corné Mulder, Chief Whip of the FF Plus in Parliament yesterday, in which he had put it to the Minister that her Department according to their own acknowledgement does not have reliable information about the status of single, double and parallel medium schools which offer mother tongue education.

"The FF Plus has already been asking for some time now that the government addresses the problem of the scaling down of the number of single medium Afrikaans schools in South Africa. The announcement of the Minister that she would be taking the issue further follows on the President's acknowledgement to the leader of the FF Plus, Dr. Pieter Mulder, in Parliament last week that the government has to look at what the state is doing to promote mother tongue education in all indigenous languages in South Africa. To start to address the problem the starting point should therefore be to scientifically determine the current state of mother tongue education in our schools," is the opinion of Dr. Mulder.

It is encouraging that President Zuma and the Minister of Basic Education are following a new approach with regard to the solving of problems relating to mother tongue education. The announcement of a time frame within which decisive action will be taken to promote education in all indigenous languages, is dramatically different to the approach of the former Mbeki government which had followed a silent policy of Anglicization. The recognition by the Minister that the state, with the help of independent institutions will be addressing the issue of mother tongue education, will ensure that learners would have a better chance of receiving mother tongue education," Dr. Mulder added.