On 7 May 2025, Indigenous Languages Action Forum hosted a well-attended webinar on Language and Education with Dr Connie Makgabo from the University of Pretoria. In conversation with Dr Makgabo was Siki Dlanga, ILAF Communications and Coordinator together with Abram Mashatole, who is a multilingual degree lecturer at the University of Limpopo. Mr Mashatole was in his capacity as the vice chair of ILAF. Dr Makgabo’s recent book, Mokgwaruta wa Sepedi The Teacher’s Guide to the Sepedi Language answered the question of unskilled indigenous language teachers in South African schools. This groundbreaking indigenous language teacher’s guide is co-edited by Dr Connie Makgabo, Dr AD Maledu, Dr SM Tembane and Dr FM Kanyane. Children in South Africa struggle with reading and comprehension in any language. How do teachers teach language when they are not language specialists? Yet this happens in South Africa. According to research, children learn best in their mother-tongue.
The Language and Education discussions attracted well over 40 academics and practitioners. Dr Makgabo’s book is a response to a concerning lack of training for teachers who teach indigenous languages in schools. Schools often use teachers who speak an indigenous language but often have no prior language training – let alone expertise in that language. This inadequate training is also because of the unavailability of training materials in indigenous language teaching training. Makgabo and Dr Maledu were instrumental in putting together this book to train teachers. The participants in the groups shared their interest in Dr Makgabo’s material to draw inspiration to work on similar material to address the same gaps in their language groups. Dr Nonzolo Titi sparked interest in the development of a similar book for isiXhosa. There were participants in the group who raised their hands to join Dr Titi as they draw from Dr Makgabo’s work. The webinar drew professors from other parts of the continent due to the reach of our social media page. ILAF vice chair, Mashatole was instrumental in the conversation with his depth of knowledge in teaching and writing academic papers in English and in Sepedi. The interest in Dr Makgabo’s topic kept participants glued until the end of the webinar with many expressing their gratitude and respect for her contribution. We wish all participants well as they go on to develop the similar work for their various indigenous languages. Happy Africa Month!
