AfriForum, SOS and Solidarity fight back with more than 10 000 comments against proposed school regulation changes in Gauteng
30 August 2018
The civil rights watchdog AfriForum, the Schools Support Centre (SOS) and Solidarity will today present more than 10 000 comments by parents and members of the public against the planned amendment to laws pertaining to Gauteng schools, as announced by the MEC of the Gauteng Education Department, Panyaza Lesufi, on 30 July 2018.
The public had until Thursday to comment on the proposed regulatory changes. These amendments include, among others, that the MEC for Education in Gauteng will have the final say about a school’s language and admission policy. The department will also be able to decide whether a school is full or not. Proposed regulations further stipulate that no learner may be denied access to a school on the basis of language and that pupils who live within a 30 kilometre radius of the school, also fall within the school’s feeder zone.
“Lesufi held numerous public meetings where concerned Afrikaans parents asked questions. However, these questions were not answered at any of the meetings. On the contrary, parents who specifically asked about mother-tongue education were reviled as being racist,” said Carien Bloem, coordinator for education at AfriForum.
“It was perhaps easy for Lesufi to ignore Afrikaans parents at public meetings, but it will be harder to respond with the same contempt to 10 000 official comments,” Bloem added.