Die stand van moedertaal na 1994: 'n gevallestudie van die Xhariep-distrik

English: The changing political environment after 1994 brought about changes in education as well as mother tongue education. The biggest change in mother tongue education is the clause in the Constitution 108 of 1996, section 6, which stipulates that mother tongue education is merely an option and not a requirement like before. Further language legislation implemented after 1994 was: National Education Policy (nr. 27 of 1996), the South African Schools Act (nr. 84 of 1996) and the Language-in- Education Policy (1997). The main focus areas of the study are language planning, language policy and language management within education. These terms are closely tied together, and one of the primary goals surrounding these terms is to solve language problems. Various other facets in language policy and language planning as discipline form the framework for the study: the process of language planning from initiation through to implementation, management agents (central government, provincial government, external and internal agents) who are to be found in the education system, as well as external factors in the process that can influence the choice of education medium. The goals of the study are to determine which of the schools in the Xhariep, which are mainly Afrikaans and seSotho, changed their language of education policies after 1994, which process was followed in order to do this, who the agents were who participated in the changes, and which factors led to the changes as well as the choice of language of education. The study utilises a historical approach. Due to the gaps in documentation, the data is dependent on interviews. Printed media was also utilised as a source of information in order to support the information of the intervlews. The South African context was discussed within the framework of the literature, due to the fact that the history of the country influenced the Xhariep's schools choices regarding language policy. The data indicated that the governing body did not make the overhead decisions, even though this is indicated on paper. A specific process of language planning was not followed and a policy was compiled according to the criteria of the Department of Education. The approval of the policy was dependent on the community before it was sent to the Department of Education. In addition to history being a factor, politics also contributed to the changes that took place in the Xhariep schools. The printed media indicated that two towns had resorted to violence and boycotts, due to the fact that the English medium school wanted to make use of some of the Afrikaans medium school's buildings. With the changing context in mind, the Afrikaans community feared that their children would not receive a good education and consequently sent their children to schools in nearby towns or cities. This left the Afrikaans medium schools in the district almost without any learners, which is an indication that the changes also took place due to demographics. There are various correspondences between the literature and the data, but the study also indicated that it is difficult to create a framework and expect that each school's situation can be studied and explained by means of this framework. Language policy and language planning have many facets, and consequently the disciplines in education need to be approached in the same way.