Homeschooling in South Africa (also known as home education or unschooling there) had been illegal, until it was recognized in 1996 under the South African School Legislation, since then it has grown significantly.
Notable moments in the history of homeschooling are provided below. Most of the content comes directly from primary sources and has not been documented anywhere yet:
1868-1900 Dr Andrew Murray was the only minister in the Nederduitsch Gereformeerde (NG) church in the Free State and Transvaal, and he was based in Bloemfontein. He was tasked to travel through both republics baptizing people, giving catechism and performing marriage ceremonies. Dr. Murray was surprised that he very seldom found young people that were illiterate, in reading, writing and arithmetic and this despite the fact that there were no schools in the area traveled. Nomad farmers bordering the north east of the Cape Colony in the eighteen hundreds had no schools, teachers or religious ministers, and yet literacy was a universal occurrence.Email from Leendert van Oostrum on Tuisondwerwys mailing list
1900-1991 Government schools increased in implementation and the freedom of home schooling was increasingly limited. By the 1990s only a few families were allowed to homeschool under severe restrictions, if they could have their children exempted from compulsory school attendance. That was only granted up to Grade 3, if the family lived more than 80 km from the nearest school and if the child(ren) were taught by a teacher qualified to teach the junior primary phase.
1992 The Association for Homeschooling is established.
1993 (Homeschoolers jailed) On 14 December 1993 Andre and Bokkie Meintjies were sentenced to prison because their children did not attend formal school. In a court case that lasted for almost five years, Andre was sentenced to two years and Bokkie one year in separate jails in Johannesburg, and this while their three children were placed in an orphanage in the Eastern Cape to prevent contact between the parents and children. Several other parents were given suspended sentences on condition they put their children in schools. All of those parents still have criminal records.
1994 A group action was launched by the Association for Homeschooling and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) from the USA that led to release of both Bokkie and Andre. The Meintjies couple were however released six months later under a blanket amnesty for prisoners with the implementation of the new constitution.
1995 Concept legislation was published to the effect that home schooling was to be illegal in South Africa. This led to a campaign being launched by home school leaders like Leendert van Oostrum, Graham Shortridge and Kate Durham with the HSLDA. Thousands of home schoolers in the USA wrote letters to the South African embassy in the US in support of this campaign. In that time, SA was still expecting to receive large grants from America, and American public opinion was taken seriously.
1996 (SA Schools Act acknowledges home education) In November of this year the SA Schools Act was promulgated wherein home schooling was recognized. In December of the same year, the new constitution of South Africa was accepted, in which the legal status of home schooling was entrenched more securely. The act requires that every home learner be registered with the relevant provincial education department – unless there is good reason not to.
1998 The Pestalozzi Trust is established in accordance with a brief from the general meeting of the Association for Homeschooling to serve as a legal fund to ensure the continued freedom and to promote such freedom.
1999 Mr. Kader Asmal publishes the national policy concerning the registration of home schoolers, wherein the input from both the home schooling contingent and the provincial education departments is totally ignored. The Pestalozzi Trust advises home schoolers that the policy is in direct conflict with the SA Schools Act, and therefore not enforceable.
2001 - 2002 (Persecution of Doddie Kleynhans and Promulgation of NCS)
Feb : In February 2001 the police accompanied by the media arrived at the home of Doddie Kleyhans to arrest her. Within three minutes The Pestalozzi Trust had an attorney on the line to the senior police officer on the scene. The attorney made it clear to the policeman that the whole issue was not arrest worthy, and that it was completely sufficient to warn her that a case was being investigated against her. This they did. And Beeld newspaper carried a front-page article about the issue. The posters against lampposts led with "Government vs Mother". Due to great pressure from the office of the minister of education, the case was never closed but also never prosecuted. Till her death the cloud of prosecution hung over Doddie. Oct : The Constitutional Court rules that the case of Harris that policies such as the registration of home schoolers may not be enforced on them. Jun - Nov : The draft NCS was released on 30 July 2001 for public comment and the closing date for comment was on 12 October.
The National Curriculum statement claims that it is based on the Manifesto, although the final publication of the Manifesto was only released after the National Curriculum Statement (NCS). It is put this way in the policy document in the NCS (pg.7). "The Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy (Department of Education, 2001) identifies ten fundamental values of the Constitution…The Manifesto further identifies sixteen strategies to acquaint young South Africans with the values of the Constitution. This strategy is articulated in the Revised National Curriculum Statement and includes the following:…" This time delay indicates that the values upon which the NCS is based, were established long beforehand, and that the process used to compose the manifesto is deceptive. Many groups have objections against this Curriculum statement. The most important points of criticism against the National curriculum are the following:a) It attempts to transfer the values of the Inter-faith religion to pupils. For those who wish to find out more about this aspect of the curriculum, the video “Die Intergeloofs – en New Age infiltrasie in die onderwys” by Sarel van der Merwe is strongly recommended. In Gr. 1 the following is expected: “Matches symbols associated with a range of religions in South Africa” From Gr. 4 pupils the following is expected: “demonstrate planning and skillful use of design elements in creating masks based on various nature gods of different cultures;” Gr. 6 pupils must “Finds out about, tries out and explains a song-dance ritual (e.g. snake dance, rain dance, wedding dance circle dance, reed dance, stick dance), referring to its purpose and structure - patterns, repetition and sequence.”
b) Sex education from a secular perspective forms an integral part of the NCS. In Gr. 1 a pupil is expected to do the following: “Recognises situations that may be, or may lead to, sexual abuse,...” In Gr. 6 the following is expected: “Explains causes of communicable diseases (including HIV/AIDS) and available cures, and evaluates prevention strategies, in relation to community norms and personal values.”
c) It attempts to break down cultural diversity and to transfer the culture of the regime’s fabricated ‘Rainbow Nation’. In the learning area of Social Science, the French Huguenots, the British settlers and the Great Trek are not addressed. Western History is overwhelmingly portrayed in a negative light. Instead of his own history, for example the Afrikaans child is instructed in African civilizations in South Africa prior to 1600; inequality in existence, slavery etc. For instance, in Gr. 7 the following is expected of pupils: : “Composes music, songs or jingles about human rights issues or to accompany a performance or presentation about human rights.”The summary of the NCS puts it this way: “The promotion of values is important not only for personal development, but also to ensure that a national South African identity is built on values that differ from those which undergirded apartheid educationThe following facts indicate that the aim of the department of education was to get this document approved without parents, teachers and school governing bodies noticing it and having enough time to react meaningfully.a) The document consists of 1 400 pages, available only in English, and makes liberal use of terms with which the average parent is not familiar. An example is the sentence, “An outcomes-based framework uses assessment methods that are able to accommodate divergent contextual factors.” It would be quite justifiable to ask whether it is fair to expect average parents to be able to react meaningfully to such a document while they are busy at the same time with their normal daily routine.
b) Although there are 29 000 schools in South Africa, excluding University Departments and Teacher training colleges, only 11 000 copies of the NCS were printed. Seeing as it is unlikely that the education department does not know how many schools there are in the country, this indicates that the intention of the education department was that the document would not be distributed to all schools, let alone to all teachers and parents. Some regional offices only notified schools on 4 October that they could view the NCS at the offices of specific officials. Given that it is an almost impossible task to adequately study and evaluate a document of 1 400 pages in somebody else’s office within a period of 8 days, it indicates that it was not the intention of the education department to give teachers time to study the document and react meaningfully to it.
d) In general, the education department reacted badly to requests from the public for the NCS to be posted to them.
e) On the web page of the education department there was a hyperlink to the NCS from the main page. The hyperlink was removed two weeks before the closing date for comment.
f) The education department did not take the trouble to make schools aware of the release of the NCS. In a survey of 100 schools in Gauteng in the last week of September, only 3 schools were aware of the NCS and only 2 had seen copies of it.Notwithstanding these obstacles, there was overwhelming reaction from the public against the NCS. The reaction consisted of thousands of letters to the press, letters to the education department and calls to parliamentarians. All of the large denominations in South Africa strongly criticised the curriculum.
After the closing date, on 13 November 2001, public hearings were held, during which organisations could give oral input on the NCS. Although everybody could apply to make representation, the minister was able to choose whom he would allow to make representation. Although the minister said on radio the previous day that everybody would be heard, he only asked 19 organisations for input. The larger Afrikaans churches and Christian private schools were among those not permitted an opportunity to give input. During the public hearing there were demonstrations against the NCS in Cape Town and Pretoria.
In spite of the public reaction, the final NCS was promulgated on 31 May 2002, with no important changes. Some of the most repulsive sections were taken out of the learning area Life Skills and hidden away in the learning area Art and Culture.
Anyone who did not go through the whole curriculum diligently would not have noticed this subtle shift. Click here to view submissions, presentations and media releases from that period.
2004 (Gauteng meetings)