BAQONDE (Boosting the Use of African Languages in Education: A Qualified Organized Nationwide DEvelopment Strategy for South Africa) is a consortium of four South African universities (North West University, Rhodes University, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of the Western Cape) and three European institutions (Salamanca University, Trinity College Dublin and University of Groningen). The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme between 2021 and 2023. It seeks to infuse and consolidate multilingualism in South African Higher Education by implementing the sector and national legislative imperatives of eradicating English monolingual practices and ensuring that language ceases to be a barrier to access, success and employment at institutions of higher learning.

A major milestone of BAQONDE is the establishment of African Languages Development Units (ALDUs) to facilitate the training of academics on the development of multilingual pedagogies and pedagogical resources. At Rhodes University, the ALDU is housed in the School of Languages and Literatures. Apart from intra-institutional training organised through ALDUs, BAQONDE facilitates training through international and national mobility programmes. For more information on the project, please contact Prof Dion Nkomo (d.nkomo@ru.ac.za) or follow the overall project link https://baqonde.usal.es/ 

Last Modified: Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:10:26 SAST