After fleeing persecution or economic meltdown in their home countries, up to a third of refugee children in South Africa are denied the right to an education.
New research suggests that schools turn away refugee children who don’t have required documentation, such as birth certificates or enough money for school fees.
The research, a yet-to-be released study conducted by the Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) at the University of Witwatersrand, shows that 341 of 1 190 refugees interviewed in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town came to South Africa with their children, yet 35% of these children do not attend school.
According to FMSP, 150 000 refugees are documented on the database of the department, but there are as many as 1,5-million undocumented refugees in the country. By extrapolation, there could be as many as 150 000 refugee children in the country who do not attend school.
Tara Polzer, one of the programme’s researchers, said more than a third of the refugee parents interviewed could not access schooling for their children. This happened in spite of the Constitution being clear that the right to basic education applies to everyone, regardless of their legal status.
Schools act unlawfully when they refuse to enrol undocumented asylum seekers and refugee children. But many schools misunderstand the law and are under the impression that they are not allowed to accept children without birth certificates, vaccination cards and other documentation.
Refugees are often turned away because they cannot pay school fees. ”They believe that non-South African children are not eligible for school fees exemption — but that’s not true. In fact foreign children are eligible for school fees exemptions, just like South African children.”
Polzer said schools in areas where there are many asylum seekers and refugees need to plan not only for South African children but for all the children living in the area.
Cape Town Refugee Centre Education Coordinator Solethu Mnxanxeni said the department of home affairs takes an ”unreasonably long time” to issue documentation, which makes access to schools difficult for children of refugees.
But Mnxanxeni said that despite bureaucratic delays, some schools temporarily enrol refugee children while waiting for the home affairs documentation. However, he said, by the same token, many refugee parents encounter schools that refuse their children entry without identification papers.
There is also the problem of schools not knowing which grade a refugee child should be placed in when they don’t have previous school reports.
Rodney Theys, the principal of Voorspoed Primary School in Hanover Park, said there are 40 refugee children at the school, 10 of whom have no documentation.
The lack of information negatively affects the province’s Centralised Educational Management Information System (Cemis), which determines, among other things, the pupil-to-teacher ratio. ”The number of teachers that we get is based on the number of pupils enrolled … the total number is according to what we put on Cemis,” said Theys.
This means that with the addition of undocumented children, pupil-to- teacher ratios in some of the classes are as high as 53:1.
He said language is also ”a major problem” as many refugee children do not speak English or Afrikaans and teachers often have to spend a lot of time with them. ”Even their parents — we find it difficult to communicate with them when they come to register their children.”
Xenophobia, he said, is another ”big issue” at the school, and refugee children often become introverted.
Zimbabwean refugee Nowa Phunda, who lives in Khayelitsha and has two children, aged 18 and 14, said they often complain about xenophobic attacks. His children have been called makwerekwere (a derogatory term for foreigners) at school.
When he arrived in South Africa in 2006 he was unable to enrol his children because all the schools said they were full. As a result, his children lost a year of schooling before they were enrolled in 2007 with the help of the Cape Town Refugee Centre.
Coming from Zimbabwe, his children speak English but battle with Afrikaans. One of his sons had to repeat a grade because he could not pass the subject.
But despite the difficulties, there are success stories. Rwandan Justine Sibomana (21) matriculated in 2004 after starting school in South Africa in 1999.
Her family originally lived in Nelspruit and she was welcomed into the school, where fees were waived. She had to learn Siswati in Nelspruit and, when her family later moved to Cape Town, polish up her English.
Having had access to education means Sibomana, now a graphic designer, can contribute to South African society. —West Cape News