Compulsory racial classification of school children by teachers was bringing back the indignity and pain of apartheid, the Democratic Alliance charged on Sunday.
”Many of the children who have to fill out the required documentation were born after apartheid, but are now having apartheid ideology inflicted on them,” said DA education spokesperson Helen Zille.
The practice also raised ”the terrible spectre” of race testing for children whose race group was not immediately apparent to teachers.
She intended submitting a complaint about it to the Human Rights Commission this week and would also be calling for a Parliamentary debate on the matter.
The policy had been implemented at the instruction of the Education Department, which claimed it was necessary to measure transformation, she said.
Zille pointed out that while all previously white public schools were now attended by children of all races, former black schools remained black. The quality of education had deteriorated in poor schools in the past ten years, she added.
”This is the greatest scandal by far of the new South Africa. Real transformation would involve a significant improvement in the quality of education offered to the poorest children so that they too have a chance in life.
”Instead of focusing on this, the ANC continues to pursue its race obsession and revisit apartheid practices on our new democracy.
”This is precisely the kind of abuse that the Human Rights Commission should put a stop to,” Zille said. – Sapa