School Governing Bodies
by Ivor Baatjies and Salim Vally

Last week, the Sunday Times (State to nail parents for bad school results, Sunday Times, 13 May 2007) ran a headline story on the proposed amendment to the Schools Act. This story triggered widespread debate in the country. Some argued that the proposal forces parents to accept responsibility for the poor performance of their own children in a situation where state support is tardy and where the contextual realities of poor communities are ignored. Most commentators have expressed reservations about the draft bill and the most scathing critique came from the Sadtu general secretary, Thulas Nxesi who stated, “The department and ministry of education are looking for scapegoats for the inadequate performance of the education system: teachers, learners, principals and now parents - everyone except the bureaucrats who preside over the system”. | more |

Children's Right to Basic Education
by Salim Vally and Brian Ramadiro

Recent research has established that a common concern expressed by vulnerable children involves the cost of education. For decades, South Africans, both young and old, have recognised the importance of education. The student uprising of 1976, sparked-off by the demand for equal education marked the beginning of the demise of Apartheid. Our constitution speaks to this aspiration by guaranteeing the right to a basic education. Internationally, the right to education has been recognised as a precondition for the enjoyment of many civil and political rights such as freedom of information, expression and association and the right to vote. Similarly, many economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to form trade unions or the right to take part in cultural life, can only be exercised in a meaningful way after a minimum level of education has been achieved. | more |

Testimonies from the Education Rights Project
by Salim Vally and Brian Ramadiro

The past eight months in the life of the Education Rights Project has shown over and over again that the right to basic education is for many children in poor and working class communities no more than a mere constitutional declaration.

During a process of collecting testimonies detailing the views and experiences of learners, teachers and community activists about their local schools, cold statistical data on school fees, transport, feeding schemes, child labour, infrastructure and facilities were given new meaning. The troubles and struggles of individuals and communities to educate their young in very trying conditions, to make the hard-won constitutional right to education a reality, are vividly portrayed in these testimonies.
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The right to Education: Mobilising Shame and Speaking Truth to Power
by Katarina Tomasevski

The United Nations - which had about 190 members at the last count - is composed of governments. It is inter-governmental. This leads to the first paradox. Governments are sitting in an organisation that decides how to uphold or put an end to governments' abuse of power. Governments decide whether they should spend taxes on education or health or on armies or the military. It becomes abundantly clear that the UN is unable as an organisation to monitor and safeguard human rights since it is governments themselves that are invariably the violators of those rights |. more |