We put up a good fight fam 🙌

UNANSWERED QUESTION FRM MINISTER OF EDUCATION😡😡😡

Education has become a complex game of hoodwinking students and conning parents into paying for the exorbitantly expensive brainwashing going on!

Please explore this topic and suggest items you feel should be part of our children's learning experiences, or any news about education in SA that is necessary for us to know

We have come a LONG way this year in our effort to prevent clause 35 from becoming part of the punitive laws, but now that the BELA-BILL has become the BELA Act, it is necessary to tweak the nuts and bolts of our engagement with the Department of Basic Education.

I'm aware of the Pestalozzi's "news" that BELA is not actually in "force", but there's really no substantiating this given the information we all currently have.

If there's something that the Trust knows about or have discovered, and they have not shared this with their members or the public (since the Trust has made their announcement onto their public activism groups) then we can only hope they will exercise discernment and reason in their lack of transparency. Should their mistake ultimately impact the entire sector negatively, we also hope that they will take responsibility.

Going forward, we have to deal with the facts at hand and we will need to convene to cover the basic steps any new homeschooling parent will need to know, and explore any ideas and opinions we bring to the table as a diverse collective.

HSSA as an organisation hopes to be a source of reliable information that will enable calm and comprehensive thinking and neutral action that will not jeopardise parents or their children and their children's academic futures.

We're not giving up any resistance to tyranny, but we cannot imagine ourselves being a single brick wall in the face of a tsunami.

There are ways and means of gaining ground even in the face of a loss.

Clause 35, the homeschooling clause, is now an amendment in the BELA Act and it forms part of the relevant documents we all need to understand.

Let us all take a deep breath and not panic over what is a "deadline" to register, or become confused about the legitimacy of the promulgation (which appears to satisfy the criteria according to the definition)

*IF* the Pestalozzi Trust has happened onto some loophole with which to nullify the entire act, and it comes to pass that tomorrow is _not_ the deadline, then the Government can very easily reiterate the process and add a date to the gazetted act and make it applicable retrospectively, or just offer a new deadline.

As such, this changes nothing.

We must look at the law and decide what we will do based on the information we have and the impact our decision will have on various aspects of our lives.

Please remember that the punitive measures for refusing to register are serious, but that the implementation thereof is not going to be in a mad max style, but due to jurisdiction and due process, must be implemented and executed in a reasonable manner.

In other words, *we have time* to _become compliant_ or to _individually challenge the aspects of the process_, regardless of the deadline and regardless of the percieved consequences.

Some parents will want to force the hand of government and challenge them to jail them, while others will wish to just move on without a fuss or a fight.

Whatever you choose, just choose it for yourself and don't mind what the media, or others are demanding of you.

YOU are the one who holds this responsibility and YOU are ultimately accountable to your God, your children and the law.

So, make an effort to explore your options and make a point of becoming familiar with the facts as well as the nuanced opinions of those *in the same boat* as you are.

We will chat again tomorrow once we know more, but for now, it makes no difference if the gazetted Act included a commencement date or not, because the Presidency announced it verbally.

Stay calm and stay strong and stay focused on doing the very best you can for your children ✨️

Regards,
Rebekka Liebenberg
PRETORIA, 15 October 2024
_for_ HSSA
(Homeschooling in South Africa)

Hi, Trudie

Thanks for passing the message on!

If you have questions about the basis for the Trust's advice on the deadline you can read the attorney's letter posted to the info group over the weekend. It gives a good explanation of both the case for and against the Bill being currently in force.

The Trust's stance was adopted on the basis of formal legal advice obtained from its counsel, which includes a Senior Counsel and three leading Junior Counsel. I don't know who advised the writer of the above message.

Legally, the stance that "*it makes no difference if the gazetted Act included a commencement date or not, because the President announced it verbally*" is a completely untenable legal position. There is no provision in law that allows the President to enact a law via verbal announcement. Section 81 of the Constitution says that a law takes effect when published in the Gazette or on a date determined in the Act. Section 54 of the BELA Act states that the Act will come into effect on a date fixed by the President in the gazette. Neither of those allow for the president to verbally proclaim a date for the law to come into effect and there is no legal precedent that such verbal proclamation would be acceptable.

Although we all obviously expect the President to at some point announce a commencement date in the Gazette (likely when the three month period he promised Solidariteit and Afriforum is up), it is obviously also important to know whether the Act is currently in force or not, as different legal provisions are applicable depending on whether you submit registration documents under the old section 51 or the new section 51. Some examples are:
* If a person submits registration documents before the Act is in force they are not covered by the 60 day "deemed registration" clause.
* If the Act is not currently in force, there is no legal obligation to submit assessments at the end of the phase.
And many other differences.

For homeschoolers to make informed choices it is therefore important to know whether the Act is actually in force at any given moment or not.

Thanks for sharing Trudie and Tanya

We still wait to hear about the validity of the 'entire' act, in terms of commencement, and it does indeed seem as if there has been a delay in the enactment of the Basic Education Laws Amendment because the Gazetted document didn't specifically stipulate a date of commencement. What I say is based on a document shared by a homeschooling mom who wrote to the Minister to ask, subsequently got a response and shared it with us a few days after the 15th of October, to quell the concerns of parents.

Therein, the minister says:

"Section 54 of the BELA Act provides that the Act “comes into operation on a date fixed by the President by proclamation in the Gazette”. No commencement date has been proclaimed by the President to date. The BELA Act has therefore not yet commenced. Steps have been taken to initiate the preparation of the relevant proclamation in this regard in line with the President’s announcement that all sections, except sections 4 and 5, of the BELA Act shall be commenced."

and:

"I have no legal standing to reverse the President’s decision to sign the BELA Act into law or to make the proclamation contemplated in section 54 of the BELA Act. My Department and I will, however, make recommendations to the President on how best to structure the commencement arrangements applicable to the BELA Act."

My perspective was, and still is that it does look like the act was legitimately passed, but that if it is not, like the Pestalozzi is inferring, we still have the same regulations hanging over our heads. Other than reading the letter from the Minster, and having listened to a live transmission on the matter on the parliamentary YouTube channel 2 days ago (24/10 - https://www.youtube.com/live/co6PWwA57_Q), an on the strength of a legal expert I consulted, I find that there is still some uncertainly on this matter, and still not much in there for us as homeschoolers.

Like I mentioned in my post/letter of the 15th of October, clause 35 is part of the act, and that it actually does not make a significant difference for homeschoolers if the act is in force now, or later. This is mainly because the policy on home education is pretty much clause 35 anyway (almost verbatim), but also because clause 35 is not one of the clauses the President set aside for 3 months. When he announced it, he did say that it will be in effect immediately. We have also seen how the PED's are implementing the same. The technicality will not make a difference, unless you are planning on contesting a court order to register your child for home education, and the judge finds you guilty and passes the punitive sentence over you.

It is quite important to read things within their context, to gain full comprehension, and when the Pestalozzi trust representative writes that my position cannot be defended successfully against criticism or attack, they fail to comprehend my meaning. The 'difference' I refer to, is what will change for us as homeschoolers, depending on the status of the act. This letter I wrote was sent out on the HSSA WhatsApp groups and it was part of an ongoing conversation stemming from those groups, about a level of panic that parents were experiencing about the deadline for registration. My advice to our group members was to please remain calm and gather their registration information, and also, that they should take the advice of the Pestalozzi trust and wait until we know more before registering out of a sense of panic or fear. This was for parents who feel lost and unsure. Many parents are now doing their due diligence and reading all the relevant documentation themselves, to become informed and to make the decisions that only they can make for their families, regardless of mine or the Pestalozzi or anyone else's opinion. When the Pestalozzi initiated this sensationalistic storm in a teacup over the commencement date, their communication was lacking and it all seemed rather 'need to know' and 'confidential' and 'cloak and dagger'. It's also downright ridiculous to say that homeschoolers could "harm homeschooling" by discussing these things. All we can do through open and honest sharing, is to grow in knowledge, become more united and empowered. The moment any group is cautioned to remain silent or activists like myself are hounded off working groups, or have their personal reputations maligned by people in their own sector, you better believe that there is something else going on. What that might be, I don't know.

Fortunately for all of us, any parent is free to read all the documents and supporting documents and make an informed choice based on the facts, and the fact is that registration is required by law, and that there are penalties the court can use against an unregistered homeschooling parent. Regardless of our choices and actions, this is our reality, and I urge everyone to read the policy on home education, as well as the BELA bill/act as well as other peripheral documents that could possibly pertain to your homeschooling journey (like the schools admission policy, and the children's act, the old SASA etc). There are so many really, and each parent will need to do their due diligence, according to their personal circumstance. I would suggest everyone start with understanding what the Children's act says and MEANS. While a policy may not be as 'enforceable' as an act, it is still law, and we need to at least know how we intend to challenge it if we are going to ignore, resist or refuse it. If you as a parent are paying someone to take care of this on your behalf, the least you should expect is transparency and detailed guidance. So, if the BELA is not enacted yet, then we are still subject to the policy on home education. If it is enacted, we are subject to clause 35 which is so very similar to the policy, that apart from the criminal liability, it gets to splitting hairs when we start to compare and contrast. So in the real world, BELA or not, for the last 20 years or so, as a sector, we have effected little change to the legislative process that brought us the policy, and the BELA bill. Granted, the 1999 SASA is not much different, but prior to our engagement with the DBE, homeschoolers had not launched a campaign to bring about the changes we NEED as a sector. In fact, over the last 2 decades everything just became worse despite the efforts from our sector. There's a potential book of information in that last bit, but lets just agree that the government has been ignoring us and playing with us and we didn't get anywhere, especially with regard to micro schools and other kinds of alternative education tangent to homeschooling.

Since my letter of the 15th, it came to light that the Pestalozzi had had in its' position, positive confirmation about this pending situation since almost a week prior. It would have saved everyone a lot of angst had they shared the information to the sector, and perhaps we could have engaged with the minister as a sector, asking her to allow us to re-negotiate clause 35. Now, they will most likely solidify it, without our sector input. It is important that any group posing as a public benefit organisation, play open cards with the public whom they claim to benefit, and especially those who join or follow them or ask them directly for pertinent information. According to a few of their members I spoke to, this information had not yet been shared in-house either.

To be able to make informed choices, it is important to have all the information and not merely somebody's say so about something.

If anyone had submitted registration documents prior to the deadline, and before the bill was/is enacted, then the policy on home education would apply instead of the act. PLEASE READ THE POLICY for more details and pay particular attention to the following therein:

13. Conditions for registration of a learner to receive education at home
(1) The conditions for registration of a learner to receive education at her or his home are set out in section 51 of the Act. These
conditions include that:
(a) the parent understands home education, accepts full responsibility for the implementation of home education for her or
his child; and undertakes to:
(i) make suitable educational resources available to support the learner’s learning;
(ii) monitor the learner’s academic progress;
(iii) arrange for the learner’s educational attainment to be assessed at a standard that is not inferior to that which is
determined in the NCS; and

(iv) provide the HOD with the learner’s assessment report signed by the competent assessor, as evidence at the end
of each phase.

(b) the proposed education programme:
(i) is suitable for the learner’s age, grade, level and ability;
(ii) covers the acquisition of content and skills at least comparable to the relevant national curriculum outcomes as
determined by the Minister; and
(iii) is approved by the HOD

and:

14. The registration of a learner for home education
(1) The HOD should keep a register of learners registered for home education.
(2) The HOD shall, in accordance with the Act, register the learner for home education if satisfied that the conditions for
registration will be complied with.

(3) The HOD must take all reasonable steps to respond within 30 days after receipt of the application on the prescribed form.

(4) As part of the approval process the HOD should:
(a) enter the child on the register; and
(b) provide the parent with a certificate of registration for the child.
(5) If the HOD declines the application to register the learner for home education, s/he shall in writing, inform the parent:
(a) stating the reason(s) for declining the application; and
(b) of the right to appeal to the MEC within 14 days of receiving the notice.

(6) The MEC should take all reasonable steps to respond to the appeal within 30 days of receipt thereof

If the act is in force, there is a legal obligation to submit phase assessments, as per the POLICY ON HOME EDUCATION, and the Government is expected to respond to your application within 30 days of receipt. This doesn't pertinently or explicitly state that our applications would be deemed successful, but given the context, as well as what is in the bill, it won't be hard to extrapolate the same.

I hope this brings some clarity to what we face. :)

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said she was constitutionally bound to ensure the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act was implemented.
This despite her party's opposition to the controversial education legislation.
Friday, 13 December marked three months since President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the factious bill into law, despite some opposition and politicking.
While her party is vehemently opposed to the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has made it clear it remains her constitutional responsibility to ensure the controversial legislation is implemented properly.

On top of this, Gwarube, a senior leader of the DA, said she would ensure the BELA Act was implemented in a manner that best supported the improvement of education outcomes.

Responding to a written parliamentary question, Gwarube said the Department of Basic Education had made progress in preparing for the implementation of the BELA Act.

According to her, the department had completed the training of officials in provincial education departments and education districts whose roles were directly impacted by the new legislation.

Gwarube said this training ensured provincial and district teams were well-equipped to support schools to give meaningful effect to the provisions of the legislation.

"At the start of the 2025 school year, these trained officials will guide school principals and school governing bodies through tailored training sessions, supported by oversight from the department. This approach is intended to ensure consistency and readiness across all levels.

"In terms of ongoing responsibilities, the department has structured implementation tasks across relevant units at both provincial and district levels. Each unit is aligned with specific BELA Act clauses relevant to its operational mandate. This targeted approach will enable focused execution and monitoring of the act to ensure that the act is implemented lawfully and in the best interests of learners," she said.
Gwarube added the department was carefully determining where additional national regulations, national norms and standards, and national policies might be required to ensure the proper implementation of the BELA Act.
"This is an important but time-intensive exercise. Our efforts to prepare for the implementation of the BELA Act will also be guided by the commencement arrangements to be determined by the president after the ongoing consultations between the parties in the government of national unity [GNU] have concluded. We remain committed to aligning our approach with the outcomes of these consultations, respecting the input of all stakeholders involved."

She added:
As Minister, it is my constitutional responsibility to ensure that the BELA Act is implemented properly and ultimately in a manner that best supports the improvement of education outcomes.


Friday, 13 December marks three months since President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the factious act into law, despite some opposition and politicking.
During a signing ceremony in September, the president announced a three-month delay in implementing two contested clauses to allow for more deliberation on how different views can be accommodated.
Clause 4 gives the department more control over admissions policy, while Clause 5 compels school governing bodies to submit the school's language policy to the provincial head of department for approval.

A slew of organisations objected to the two clauses, including the DA, AfriForum, the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysunie, and Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools.
Addressing the SACP's national conference in Boksburg, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said the clearing house - the GNU dispute resolution mechanism that he chairs - finished its work on the BELA Act on Thursday evening.
"So, last night I went and reported to the president that we are done, here is the report," Mashatile said.
"So, the president has the report, and he is going to announce very soon on how we have concluded. He didn't say today, or tomorrow. He said, 'I will announce'."
Mashatile did not divulge the outcome of the clearing house's deliberations on the legislation.

Meanwhile, Gwarube said the gap in education outcomes between pupils receiving instruction in their mother tongue and those taught in a second language remained stark.
"This linguistic divide hampers comprehension and academic achievement, particularly in foundational subjects like mathematics and science.
"Language is a powerful enabler of learning, and research has clearly shown learners whose home language differs from the language of learning and teaching at school are significantly outperformed by learners taught in their home languages," she added.

The department is currently rolling out the mother tongue bilingual-based education (MTBbE) programme.
It aims to support provincial education departments in assisting public schools to expand access to mother tongue education where the need arises.
"The MTBbE programme seeks to allow learners to access mathematics, science, and technology instruction in their home language alongside English. By doing so, we aim to empower learners to excel in these critical subjects by bridging the gap between comprehension and application.
"To support this programme, we are prioritising the training of educators in bilingual teaching methods, ensuring the availability of quality bilingual learning and teaching support materials, and exploring the possibility of a bilingual national assessment," she said.
Gwarube, however, reiterated these challenges would not be solved overnight.
She said:
Rolling out mother tongue education will not solve all our challenges overnight. However, it can contribute to improving learning outcomes and foster a deeper appreciation of South Africa's rich linguistic and cultural heritage.
"Achieving this aim will require significant resources and investment. Given the constrained fiscal environment the country currently faces, this will need to be rolled out progressively, within our existing means, and where it is most required. I will work closely with my colleagues across all provinces to find practical solutions for expanding access to quality mother tongue education," Gwarube added.

https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/parliament/my-constitutional-responsibility-education-minister-to-ensure-bela-act-is-implemented-20241214

https://www.gov.za/womens-month#:~:text=South%20Africa%20commemorates%20Women's%20Month,celebrated%20annually%20as%20Women's%20Day.

https://signal.group/#CjQKIEoYCT_ZqtWLBlWO1flSCzdMa8sRPoOQjxEj1Z7zGg8oEhChbFRfVp1RnUrx6oJBLeow

Bible Based Home Schooling

Something that used to be a backbone for the homeschooling sector was the many fathers who provided so that moms could stay home and educate their children. Nowadays, most homeschoolers are people who desperately need to get their children out of harms way - how did the world change so quickly?

The more you know

👉 RealSGAnon