By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A civil rights organisation for homeschoolers, Pestalozzi Trust, has filed papers to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act.
According to the Trust, Parliament failed to allow sufficient public participation, resulting in a flawed process.
Pestalozzi Trust spokesperson Christopher Cordeiro said, “The Trust contends that there was “undue haste in processing the Act” and “procedural irregularities in Parliament itself.”
A central pillar of their case is the assertion that there was lack of meaningful public participation. Cordeiro explained that for participation to be meaningful, several components are necessary: timely notification of hearings, proper education about the Bill’s contents, and adequate time for the public to express their opinions.
The BELA Act, signed into law in 2024, amends the South African Schools Act and has been met with fierce opposition over several clauses, particularly those dealing with school admission policies, language policies and the regulation of homeschooling.
The disputed law outlines significant reforms to existing education law.
The major changes include:
- School admissions and the language of instruction will be regulated by government
- Home schooling will be regulated
- Parents who fail to ensure their child is in school may face jail
- Grade R, for four and five-year-olds, will be the new compulsory school starting level – a year earlier than currently
- The abolition of corporal punishment will be backed by fines and possibly jail time for those who administer it
The Pestalozzi Trust is fundamentally opposed to regulating home education under a Schools Act. Homeschooling needs to be regulated under a completely different kind of legislation,” Cordeiro argued, pointing out the impracticality of applying rules designed for a “1 500-person school” to a home education environment.
The Trust advocates for separate and appropriate legislation for homeschooling, developed through deep consultation with the homeschooling community itself, arguing that the Department of Basic Education “know[s] very little about homeschooling and home education.”
Experts says that South Africa’s education system needs to drastically improve.
In 2021, it ranked last out of 57 countries assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which tested the reading ability of 400,000 students around the world.