Although South Africa became a democracy in 1994 and the government began to decolonise
education, we still see signs of eurocentrism in the curriculum. Eurocentrism tends to
promote and influence western views of the world. [Merriam-Webster] For us to decolonise
education, we need to focus on Afrocentrism and less on eurocentrism. In the following essay,
I will be discussing the importance of decolonising education and what effects it will have on
our country.
The first part of decolonising education is to introduce Afrocentrism as a new standard for
the curriculum, this is a big issue that was brought up by the South African youth. [M.
Ramogale] By bringing African values and knowledge to the forefront of our curriculum we
are enabling the youth to learn more about the experiences they already have, and then we
can continue to teach new ideas. This is important in that it is believed that when students
are taught in relation to their experiences, they retain knowledge better, find it more
memorable and actively participate in school, this produces a more knowledgeable youth that
has rich knowledge of the country they live in.
It is important to note that although we should introduce Afrocentrism, we should still keep
parts of western knowledge, this is because students that are only taught about ideas and
perspectives that are around them and their experiences cannot develop new experiences
and modes of thought, which can be detrimental to the country, this is why it is important to
teach in a way that focuses on both inward (African) and outward (worldly) knowledge. When
we introduce this outward knowledge, the complexity in the teaching and learning increases
and better equips students to the difficulties and complexity of the world outside of their
country.
When looking into the decolonisation of education we need to look at language. South Africa
has 11 official languages, and during the apartheid era we saw many of these languages being
pushed to the side and almost all the curriculum was to be taught in Afrikaans and English.
Today we still see the remnants of this with most schools teaching and examining in one of
these 2 languages. An important factor in putting decolonisation into practices would be to
ensure that all 11 languages are taught and examined in. [R. Naidu-Hoffmeester] In doing this,
we will be using our newfound democracy (including all people of all cultures) to decolonise
the curriculum.
In Apartheid South Africa, education was ‘white only’ and this can still be seen in 2021, with
the majority of students who matriculate being white and there is only one way to change
this form of education being colonised. Having free education in our country is important,
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