The homeschool associations need your support to meet with Department of Basic Education in October and January to discuss new proposed regulations on home education.
The Pestalozzi Trust started 2014 with the publication of an article titled : “Homeschooling running into heavy weather”. This article describes how a cooperation has developed between three parties, who will eventually restrict home education drastically. These three parties are government, teacher unions and institutional investors. Much has happened this year that have confirmed the concerns of the Pestalozzi Trust, including the leaking of envisaged draconian regulations on home education by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).
Public schools are under total government control which was strengthened in 2014 when schools lost the freedom to choose textbooks. The regulation of private schools is escalating to such an extent that it will soon be a privilege for the rich only. This leaves home education as the only form of affordable education that parents can choose to provide their children with a quality education, in line with their values, that can be adapted to the needs of each individual child. If DBE is allowed to implement their envisaged regulations, this form of education will also be transformed into an expensive, inflexible form of public education at home.
Fortunately the Homeschool Associations in South Africa have been invited to meetings with DBE to participate in the review and finalisation of home education policy and regulations. These meetings will take place on the 9th and 10th of October 2014 and the 29th and 30th of January 2015 in Pretoria. Homeschool Associations from all over the country plan to send representatives to attend these meetings to do everything in their power to retain the freedom of parents to choose the kind of education for their children. The associations are also working together as the South African Coalition for Home Education.
The representatives that will attend these meetings are volunteers that sacrifice their personal time for this cause. The Associations are willing to pay for the travel and subsistence costs, but they have limited resources. Many associations do not charge membership fees, and those that do, have not budgeted for these expenses. These associations need the support of homeschooling parents.
To make it possible for parents to support the associations, Cape Home Educators (CHE) has opened a special bank account in which donations can be paid for this purpose. The bank details of the account are :
Name : Cape Home Educators
Bank : ABSA
Branch : 632005
Acc Number : 92 9892 3964
Type : Savings
Homeschooling parents are kindly requested to make donations to this account to make it possible for the Homeschool Associations to represent the interests of the homeschooling community. Reports on these meetings will be published on the websites www.sahomeschoolers.org. Sponsors that make donations of R1000 or more will be recognised in these reports. Excess funds will be kept in a savings account to sponsor future initiatives to promote the freedom of home education.