Image caption: During the legislative process, the South African committee members visited Finland for an outside perspective on homeschooling.
On Friday, September 13, 2024, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) into law. This bill represents a significant setback for homeschool freedom in South Africa, where families have enjoyed the educational option for years. So, how did we get here?
During Apartheid, homeschooling was illegal and parents opting for home education were jailed. The situation was bleak. Fortunately, thanks to campaigns by the Association for Homeschooling, the South Africa Schools Act of 1996 made provisions allowing parents to choose homeschooling without fear of persecution.
Two years later, a group of Christians formed the Pestalozzi Trust, which aimed to protect the rights of member families to homeschool according to their convictions by offering affordable legal and advocacy services.
For nearly two decades, families homeschooled in relative peace and the homeschooling population continued to grow.
Then, in 2014 a threat emerged in the Western Cape province. The provincial minister for education, Donald Grant, published a home education policy requiring home educators to follow the national curriculum and be monitored by the province. Thankfully, after the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) was flooded with letters and phone calls from homeschooling families, the policy was withdrawn weeks later. The homeschooling community breathed a sigh of relief, and hoped that was the end of it.