Homeschooling parents have scored a small victory — registering their child for home education with the provincial education departments will not require a site visit by an official.
One of the contentious clauses in the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill stated that provincial education departments “may require a delegated official to conduct a preregistration site visit and consultation with the parents and learner to verify the information supplied in the application documentation”.
But during a meeting of the portfolio committee on basic education on Tuesday, members adopted the amendment that made it mandatory for homeschooling parents to register their children with the department, but deleted the requirement for site visits.
Another clause that required home education parents to arrange to have their child’s educational attainment assessed by a competent assessor annually has been changed to assessments at the end of grades 3, 6 and 9.
School governing body members and their spouses, partners and immediate family members will also not have to disclose their financial interests annually, which had been originally proposed in the bill.
The Bela bill proposes to amend the South African Schools Act and the Employment of Educators Act “to align them with developments in the education landscape”.
According to a draft consolidated report that was given to members, parts of the proposed amendments include:
- making grade R the new compulsory school starting age;
- criminalising parents who don’t ensure their children are in school;
- abolishing corporal punishment and initiation practices;
- giving government department heads power over language policies; and
- prohibiting educators from conducting business with the state.
A total of 11,264 participants attended public hearings on the bill that were conducted in all nine provinces from February to June.
According to the report, 46% of speakers supported the bill, 7% partially supported it, while 42% rejected it and 5% did not indicate either way.
Those supporting it “stressed the transformative nature of the bill, particularly in language and admission policies, as historically disadvantaged children are denied access to former Model C schools due to language and admission policies”.
Participants who rejected it argued that the centralisation of power to determine language and admission policy “was counterproductive as it will create an unnecessary burden for the head of department”.
“Many participants expressed strong opposition to the provisions regarding home education and argued among others that it does not consider the individual needs of children; erodes the parents' constitutional right to make decisions about their children; and over-regulates homeschooling without considering individual needs.”
Those rejecting the bill included an organisation from the homeschooling sector, the DA, AfriForum and Freedom Front Plus. The Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools and the South African Teachers’ Union partially rejected the bill.
According to the report, homeschooling parents, practitioners and pupils objected to the clause forcing parents to register their children for homeschooling, saying it undermined their freedom to choose.
“They chose to homeschool for different reasons, including learning disabilities of their children, overcrowding in state schools, bullying, sexual harassment, religion and so on”
Speakers who supported the clause on homeschooling wanted home education to be regulated and were opposed to parents’ provision of education to their children unchecked.
The report stated: “They were of the view that homeschooling divides the society, instead of uniting it. It encourages racism in SA and stated that the aim was to build and not to divide the country.”
According to the report, speakers rejected the powers given to the minister to make regulations that would punish teachers, parents and SGB members who don’t implement sexuality education.
“They were opposed to the department of basic education forcing comprehensive sexual education (CSE) and scripted lesson plans on schools and forcing teachers to teach CSE. The bill was viewed as an abortion bill as it would allow children as young as 12 years to have an abortion without consulting parents.”
Committee chair Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba told members that what was left was for the pages that were adopted at the meeting to be made part of the whole bill.
“We still need one more meeting to adopt what has been inserted in the entire bill, which will take place next Tuesday.”
It will then be referred to the National Assembly for debate and consideration.
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