Home schoolers threaten not to register because of government’s ‘unreasonable’ policy
JULIA GREY reports
HOME schoolers throughout the country are enraged by the new national policy for home education, gazetted in November last year. Hans Visser, a professor of the law of education at the University of Pretoria, describes the new policy as ”more or less a disaster”. ”If [the policy] implies you must abide by unreasonable conditions, home schoolers may not have to register,” says Visser.
‘Leave us alone’: Home schoolers want the freedom to teach as they please.
photo: julia grey
Leendert van Oostrum, president of the National Coalition of Home Schoolers, criticises the government for attempting to ”micro-manage home education”. Would-be home schoolers are required to register with the provincial education authorities. The approval of their registration depends on their being able to prove that, among other things, ”the learner programme … will comply with the minimum requirements of the curriculum in public schools” and that ”[home education] will not be inferior to the standard of education provided at public schools”.
But what is bothering home schoolers most about these prescriptive requirements is the fact that, while they are long on detail, they are short on precise content. No one is clear on exactly what the ”minimum requirements of the curriculum” are, much less the ”standard” of education in public schools.
It is feared that this vagueness gives too much leeway for provincial authorities to interpret the policy in a subjective and arbitrary fashion. Here’s another example: the parents’ level of education must be adjudged by the provincial authorities to be in the ”best interests of the learner”. However, exactly what level of education qualifies parents to teach their children is not specified. Home schoolers are concerned that provincial authorities will take this to mean, as the Eastern Cape currently does, that parents need a teaching degree to home school their children. However, Van Oostrum insists that there is no evidence whatsoever to prove that a teaching degree makes a parent into a better teacher.
Another area of contention is a clause that states: ”Parents who choose home education for reasons related to curriculum, ideology and pedagogy must not instil unfair discrimination, racism or religious intolerance in learners.”
Alison Shortridge, a member of the Western Cape Home Schoolers Association, comments on this requirement: ”It sounds very great and wonderful but what exactly do they mean by this and how are they going to test it?” She makes the point that certain religions — such as Christianity — are inherently intolerant, in that they do not recognise other religions as valid. If this clause is taken literally, it seems that raising a child in the ideology of one religion could be interpreted as instilling ”religious intolerance in learners”. Representative for the National Department of Education Khume Kangala concedes that ”[determining these aspects] is subjective. It depends on the person who is making the assessment. That is a problem that cannot be resolved.” However, Kangala believes that home schoolers should have more faith in the departmental officials in whose hands their fate lies. He also points out that ”where parents have problems with how the provinces are interpreting the policy, they must challenge it.” Translating this policy into a workable reality is widely seen as problematic. Says Visser: ”How they ever think they can implement all these principles in practice is beyond me.” His perception is echoed by Kangala, who concedes that ”even in public schools such practices [like teaching racism] cannot be monitored”.
While nobody is suggesting that the right of the home schooled child should not be protected, home schoolers are arguing that the policy as it stands interferes with their freedom to teach their children as they have been. Van Oostrum insists that ”international experience and research have shown that these controls have no positive effect on home schooling”. He adds that: ”We specifically requested that most of the unreasonable restrictions be excluded from the policy”, but these requests were ”ignored”.
The expressions of sympathy from overseas home schoolers would seem to support the view that this policy is too restrictive. One home schooler from the United States writes: ”It makes me eternally grateful for the wisdom of our Texas government — in this, if not other matters — for we are allowed to teach our children as we will without government oversight and interference.”
It is likely that the policy will be challenged during the coming months, especially since provinces like the North West are threatening criminal charges and heavy fines against home schoolers who haven’t registered by the end of May. Says Van Oostrum, ”The effect will be that in the end the policy on home education will be forged in the courts and not in the ministry of education.”
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, January 10, 2000.
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