A Durban school did discriminate against its isiZulu-speaking pupils by offering Afrikaans at a higher grade than isiZulu in 2007, the Equality Court in Durban found on Tuesday.

The mother of a pupil at Durban High School (DHS) had complained that her son was being taught "kitchen Zulu" at the school. She believed it would be disadvantageous for him culturally and socially and that the language was being subjugated to English and Afrikaans.

She had expected him to be taught isiZulu at the same level as English and Afrikaans but the court heard that isiZulu and Afrikaans were taught at lower levels.

There were also fewer isiZulu lessons on the timetable.

Between 80 to 90 percent of pupils in that year were English mother tongue speakers and the English taught at the school was at the highest level possible.

Afrikaans and isiZulu were offered as additional languages, but Afrikaans, though at a lower level than English, was at a higher level than isiZulu.

The court found that there was no justification to discriminate against the isiZulu speakers, and not the Afrikaans speakers in KwaZulu-Natal where isiZulu is the prevalent language.

The court had been asked to find that isiZulu be taught at the same level of English, but Magistrate John Sanders said that while the court supported transformation, this would impose an ideal that no school in the country meets and the finding would have no value.

Expressing his personal views, magistrate Sanders said the state needed to provide resources to be able to provide isiZulu at the higher level at every school and that national legislation should also be enacted to prevent or prohibit unfair discrimination.

The school however introduced a new language policy in 2008 with an isiZulu language teacher and the option in grade 10 to take either isiZulu or Afrikaans as an additional language.

The boy has since been moved to another English medium school in Gauteng where he is doing isiZulu as a second language which his mother believes is a compromise.

The row started when his mother would not pay outstanding fees when he left because she believed she was not getting value for her money.

Sapa