PHILIPSBURG--Minister of General Affairs Marcel Gumbs and Minister of Education Rita Bourne-Gumbs have sixty days to present a plan to Parliament to establish English as "the first and mother tongue" of the country.
This was the instruction given to Government via a unanimously adopted motion that was tabled in Parliament on Thursday by Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams.
The motion also instructs government to develop "a plan of approach to gradually introduce the use of the mother tongue as the first official language of St. Maarten."
A third plan to be put in place by Government is for civil servants in departments where the Dutch language is "common and sometimes mandatory." The plan is to ensure there are courses to help them "to rapidly become proficient and trained in the Dutch language."
The Constitution of St. Maarten establishes that the two official languages in St. Maarten are Dutch and English, while the education system is premised as mother tongue education (English) with Dutch as a second (foreign) language.
The Wescot-Williams motion cites that it has been scientifically established that while students are apt at learning languages from a very early age, they are much more likely to succeed in education in their mother tongue.
"More and more St. Maarteners are gravitating towards an identity uniquely St. Maarten and are exhibiting positive nationalistic motivations ... that our shared values that constitute this identity include a common language ... that the St. Martin dialect or 'twang' is derived from the English language," cites the motion.
