(Budget vote debate in Parliament: Basic Education)
The Department of Basic Education follows a centralised approach to education, which is not conducive to social cohesion or good quality education. Therefore, the FF Plus is requesting the Department to rather focus its resources on schools where performance is poor.
Professional educators, whether it be in public, independent or in home schools, fare much better when the government is not constantly looking over their shoulder.
Education in South Africa has inherited various different approaches to schooling. Where schools are considered places where the opposing forces of employer and employees clash, trade unions and tense relations dominate.
When educators, however, want to fulfil their calling under fair circumstances, the staff and parents form an alliance. That is where the government must limit its role to general standard setting and the provision of facilities.
Independent education is becoming all the more important precisely because the ideology underlying the government's educational approach is increasingly dividing cultural communities. This applies not only to prestige institutions, but also to schools in communities that use their scarce resources to prevent the government from hijacking their children.
Contrary to what the authorities fear, independence in education actually helps to establish and maintain social cohesion. It is when communities in state education feel overlooked that social cohesion suffers.
Home schools are technically permissible in terms of legislation, but parents who follow that route often feel like they keep coming up against bureaucratic walls. Another form of home schooling, that the FF Plus would like to see recognised, is cooperative home schools. It entails various families working together to form an extended home school or a micro-school of sorts.
Ultimately, education must be a function of the local community to which the government has the privilege to contribute. The current educational approach followed by the government will result in more parents and even entire communities turning their backs on it.
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