If you home-school or your child attends an unregistered cottage school or even a tutor center please become acquainted with this proposed bill; known as the BELA Bill (Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill), send a letter/ email sign the petitions and help fight against this ridiculous notion!
The government wants to restrict homeschooling and education in general they want to make homeschooling or as they see it a refusal to educate your child in the government or registered schooling system punishable by law with a 6 year prison sentence, just take that in for a minute, many criminals who commit murder in SA do not even sit for that amount of time so now homeschooling your child is a greater offense than murder!?
According to the department they feel that many homeschooling parents are using inferior curriculum's to CAPS and not being focused enough or vigilant enough with their children's schooling, uhm according to who? Since when is CAPS such an amazing system, the boys are on CAPS and I hate it I really do, I feel that it is far to content heavy, the kids are not given the opportunity to properly process and learn and the teachers are kept to busy with admin that they are unable to give their students adequate attention, they are left with the choice of focusing on the students who are coping and can achieve top marks with extra care or to focus on those who are struggling and leave the one who are coping to pass with average marks. I love the boys school though and it meets the needs of their 'disorders' so I unfortunately needed to make a decision based on what they need overall and not just on my personal preferences, lucky for me the boys school has much smaller classes and the teachers know they are working with special needs children and therefore work within their needs.
According to the department they feel that many homeschooling parents are using inferior curriculum's to CAPS and not being focused enough or vigilant enough with their children's schooling, uhm according to who? Since when is CAPS such an amazing system, the boys are on CAPS and I hate it I really do, I feel that it is far to content heavy, the kids are not given the opportunity to properly process and learn and the teachers are kept to busy with admin that they are unable to give their students adequate attention, they are left with the choice of focusing on the students who are coping and can achieve top marks with extra care or to focus on those who are struggling and leave the one who are coping to pass with average marks. I love the boys school though and it meets the needs of their 'disorders' so I unfortunately needed to make a decision based on what they need overall and not just on my personal preferences, lucky for me the boys school has much smaller classes and the teachers know they are working with special needs children and therefore work within their needs.
I have so many friends with children who are special needs or were ferociously bullied in mainstream to the point that they cannot school outside their home or in groups that outnumber 4 or 5 kids, others whose children were turned away from all the schools in their area due to lack of space, where are these kids supposed to go, especially when there are just not enough schools to accommodate the current number of students who need placement!?
It is unacceptable; every parent has a right to choose the manner in which they wish their child or children to be educated , the government feels that they are losing the ability to control what our children are taught and losing their ability to control their future political views whilst refusing to acknowledge their inadequacies.
To add, this Bill includes the controlling of all school governing bodies, ie the department will have final say in who is hired and when teachers are hired ie if they feel you don't need more teachers because they do not want to subsidize the salaries (and even if they don't) tough cookie if they feel you need to hire a specific teacher who does not have the qualifications or experience based on political agenda then so be it you will not be able to fight it!
They will also have a say in how many children are placed in a class ie we are already headed towards 35 plus in government schools that number will climb even higher now and finally they will even have a say over what language your child will be taught in!
Please help fight this, I know not all of my readers home-school but please for the sake of all our children and what is left of our crumbling education system, please spread the word, read the bill and help fight this.
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