Gumbi P
This paper seeks to investigate issues associated with the inconspicuousness of indigenous African languages in the South African education system. The integration of indigenous African languages into information and communication technology (ICT) in the basic education sector, in KwaZulu-Natal is one of the key and strategic shifts that should be considered and embraced. Such imperatives are bound to positively fast-track various efforts targeted towards the elevation and promotion of indigenous African languages as medium of instruction. These languages have been discriminated against for a number of years, since the era of colonisation and Apartheid South Africa. Despite numerous attempts by the new democratic government, through transformative legislative frameworks that seek to elevate the status of these languages, African languages are still not seriously considered within the education sector. Institutions of learning have developed multilingual language policies yet their implementation remains a major problem and a pipedream for a majority of South African. Based on the critical review of the literature on indigenous African languages and ICT, the paper highlights various opportunities and benefits that at are at disposal for the integration of indigenous African languages into ICT within the education sector, as well as some challenges associated with such initiatives. The paper concludes with a discussion of some linguistic challenges that are responsible for the continued low profile of indigenous languages in education and to a high failure rate in South African schools.
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