24 Feb 2019

Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Dikgang Makgalemele says government recognises the importance of languages in the socio-economic development of the country.

Speaking at the commemoration of national languages day in Kasane recently, he said due to the importance government attaches to languages there were a number of programmes and policies such as the national policy on culture that were geared towards promoting the development of culture and language.

Makgalemele, who is also Shoshong MP, said the national policy on culture viewed language as a mirror of society’s culture which also acted as a symbol of national unity and identity.

He said National Vision 2036 also acknowledged that culture represented a unique, dynamic and irreplaceable body of values, traditions, languages and that culture was a critical ingredient of nation building and attainment of national cohesion.

He said the national policy on education recognised the importance of mother tongue, hence the introduction of breakthrough in most primary schools. Makgalemele said the importance of breakthrough has been proved by the improved Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) performance in schools with such programme.

On the theme of the day: My Language, My Pride, he said it encouraged all stakeholders to contribute towards the development of languages. He said due to globalisation and urbanisation, there was a decline in the use of local languages. He added that there was need to develop grammars, orthographies and document languages in both print and electronic media because the availability of recordings would activate an interest in researching more languages.

Earlier, Dr Pearl Seloma of the University of Botswana encouraged families to use their indigenous languages. 

She said UNESCO encouraged the use of indigenous languages as a way of uniting nations, and appealed to Batswana not to rely on government to preserve their languages, but to work towards the preservation and development of their languages.

She said UB was willing to assist where people needed assistance to document and preserve their indigenous languages. ENDS