Mother tongue-based bilingual education boosts in-class learning

Embracing bilingual in-class learning in South Africa’s classrooms is not a call for teachers to discard teaching in English. Instead, bilingual learning promotes the use of an additional in-class language to improve the learning experience and outcome for learners, especially African language speakers.

This way of learning is possible with the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) programme, which allows pupils to learn in their home language, in addition to another language. The MTbBE programme was placed under the microscope during a morning session at the 2026 Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) programme’s Winter School. The event took place from 14 to 15 July and was organised by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) School of Education (SoE). Winter School is a free, annual professional development programme designed to support early-career teachers. This year, discussions covered a range of topics, including the role of textbooks in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and how to navigate race, class and belonging in South African schools.

The thought-provoking session on MTbBE, presented by SoE PhD candidates Samkelo Matutu and Ignacious Leeuw, got teachers engaging in robust discussions and debates on why it is important, and what the concept means for them and their learners.

Touchdown in Japan

Leeuw started the session with an ice breaker. He asked teachers to imagine that they had travelled to Japan. When they arrived there, they were required to sit in on a Grade 5 mathematics class where the teacher conducted a lesson on fractions in Japanese, without an English interpreter. Leeuw asked the teachers in the room how they would feel about that.

“These are some of the realities happening in our schools; in our communities; in our workplaces.”

Participants shared one another’s sentiments. They reported that feelings of confusion, anxiousness and frustration topped the list. Further, they expressed deep concern that they would not be able to keep up with the lesson, leading to fears that they might fail the subject. Because of the language barrier, others said they would feel isolated from the rest of the class, which would also contribute to mental health challenges in both the short and long term.

“These are some of the realities happening in our schools; in our communities; in our workplaces – even with our diversity, considering that we are a multilingual country. And that’s why we are here today: to unpack what MTbBE means,” Leeuw said.

Part of the policy

How teachers felt on their imaginary trip to Japan is how learners who speak African languages in South African classrooms feel every day. When they reach Grade 4, they are required to switch from learning in their mother tongue to learning in English. This means that expressing themselves becomes increasingly difficult and asking questions to help them grasp the new subject matter is a near impossible task. But MTbBE is the answer thousands of African first-language speakers have been looking for.

According to Matutu, the concept is nothing new. In fact, MTbBE has formed an integral part of the DBE’s Language in Education Policy since the dawn of democracy.

“In determining the language policy of the school, the governing body must stipulate how the school will promote multilingualism through using more than one language of learning and teaching, and/or by offering additional languages as fully-fledged subjects, and/or applying special immersion or language maintenance programmes,” an extract from the policy reads.

Matutu told teachers this demonstrates that the Education Policy of 1997 always promoted the use of multilingualism in schools to improve learners’ learning outcomes.

“[When learners reach Grade 4], they face two changes at once: increasingly abstract mathematics and science concepts, and a language of instruction they are still acquiring. The gap is not in the policy. It is in how classrooms translate that policy into everyday practice,” he said.

Improve learning

In a nutshell, Matutu said bilingual education improves learning outcomes for learners, and by introducing it in schools, government aims to:

• improve literacy
• strengthen understanding and performance in mathematics
• boost understanding and performance in natural science and technology
• reduce the Grade 4 learning gap, where 81% of learners struggle to read for meaning.

“Children should not be afraid to speak their language in the classroom.”

To foreground the value of MTbBE for the African language-speaking child, he explained that the concept uses a learner’s most familiar language (their mother tongue) as the language of learning, teaching and assessment (LOLTA) in the foundation phase (Grade R–3), and continues to use it as the LOLTA in the intermediate phase (Grade 4–6). What this means is that subjects like mathematics, natural science and technology and social science are taught in more than one language.

“Children should not be afraid to speak their language in the classroom and teachers should be given the tools to change what is [currently] happening in their classes. [Introducing a child’s] home language in the classroom should not replace [the use] of English. It becomes the bridge towards using English,” Matutu said.