Your child, your educational choice!

Newly proposed legislation gives corrupt cadres and politicians even more control over the education of your children. This is wrong and we must work together to put a stop to it and put freedom and the decisions of parents back into the education system.

Together, we can win and put parents back in charge of schools.

South Africa’s public education ranks amongst the worst in the world because of corrupt and incompetent management.

• Only 20% of grade 4s can read adequately;

• Only 38.9% of children entering school leave with a matric (2019); and

• Most school leavers cannot find work because of their poor education.

The only instances where education is done properly is where parents have taken ownership of the school to ensure standards are met. But instead, government plans to further limit parents’ involvement in how public schools are run and give politicians the final say on how your children are to be educated. This is to be achieved through the new Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill.

The 2022 Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill seeks to allow politicians:

1. to determine a school’s admission and language policies;

2. to appoint cadres to advise on curriculum and assessment-related matters;

3. to extend the power of the minister to make regulations and create offences related to the regulations;

4. to determine disciplinary regulations;

5. to merge public schools;

6. to centralise procurement of learning and teaching support materials; and

7. to further regulate home education.

This Bill will, if adopted, subject the country’s parents, schools, and children to more bureaucracy. The end result will be lower standards, little-to-no-progress in improving quality, and more corruption as those with political connections seek to rig big state contracts in their favour.

By putting more control and bureaucracy in the hands of provincial Departments of Education and their heads, the Bill will drive away teachers from schools. Far from improving the quality of education, this will only shrink the pool of teachers in the country further.

The powers enumerated in the Bill will undermine the language and cultural rights of communities, parents and learners – continuing the wider trend of government imposing laws and regulations that dilute South Africa’s diversity. 

Proposed Solution – Put the Choice in Parents’ Hands

• Vouchers straight to parents, cutting out the middlemen – similar to the SASSA grants system;

• Parents can spend vouchers at any school they choose, public or private;

• Schools compete for pupils – good schools get funding, bad schools get defunded;

• Our polling shows 93% of black respondents support the idea of education vouchers (2018);

• Provincial education departments remain responsible for quality assurance and standards;

• Vouchers to be funded by redirecting the existing education budget.

The IRR calls on the Department to retract the Bill.

The IRR further encourages all concerned parents and citizens who are deeply concerned about the state of education and desire child-focused improvements to support our campaign against this Bill, and for the implementation of our proposed solutions.