Question NW1612 to the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

(1)(a)(i)(ii)

Please note that the data for 1994 is not available. However, the earliest date for which the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has reliable information is 2002. Table 1 below shows the number of Afrikaans single medium schools over 10 years using 2002 as a baseline. In 2002, there were 1 814 Afrikaans single medium schools in South Africa. The majority of these schools were found in the Western Cape, followed by the Northern Cape with 289 schools.

(1)(b)

(i) The demographics in the area of some schools have changed. In response to the growing number of learners wanting English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT), the schools have introduced English as second language of instruction.

(ii) Declining number of Afrikaans speaking learners forces the schools to revert to parallel-medium (English/Afrikaans) schools.

(2) The number of Afrikaans single medium schools shows a decrease from 1 814 in 2002 to 1 234 in 2016. The major decrease took place in 2010 where the number of Afrikaans medium schools dropped by 158 schools.

Note that the only increase in the number of Afrikaans medium schools occurred between the years 2005 – 2008. The rest of the years recorded indicate a decrease.

Table 1: Number of Afrikaans single medium schools, by province, between 2002 and 2016

Province	2002	2005	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
EC	221	214	212	202	203	192	173	193	164	173	168
FS	113	98	91	70	69	68	76	75	77	79	74
GT	266	186	254	252	222	217	188	168	182	183	108
KZ	45	19	31	30	18	15	14	12	12	3	3
LP	39	31	45	44	41	26	24	22	24	26	27
MP	27	53	95	91	69	61	58	28	25	28	23
NC	289	221	248	231	182	247	245	231	237	201	174
NW	78	102	95	100	64	58	64	52	55	54	41
WC	736	802	687	681	675	666	649	648	635	626	616
Total	1814	1 729	1758	1701	1543	1550	1491	1429	1411	1373	1234

Source: 2002-2015 Annual School Survey and 2016 LURITS