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This paper examines the role of language policy in South African education. An historical overview of language planning activities in the educational sphere is pre sented, and then a number of contemporary language policies are discussed. The" mother tongue" principle is treated in considerable detail, and other language policies addressed include the introduction of black languages in white schools, the creation of a common sign lexicon for use in the education of the Deaf, orthographic standardization and lexical development of the black languages, the language-related recommenda tions of the De Lange Commission, and, last, the possible role for" Coloured Afrikaans" as an educational medium. The paper concludes with a perspective on the future of language planning in South Africa.