Private schools opposed by SADTU Bongani Nkosi, Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, 4 September 2015 [Allegedly] low-fee independent schools are sprouting up in poor areas largely as a result of the government's continued failure to provide an adequate number of schools. This picture emerged strongly when the Mail & Guardian explored these schools in Johannesburg and Orange Farm, south of the city, at a time when the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is calling for the tightening up of legislation on individual schools, starting with private schools. The Constitution permits anyone to set up a school. But SADTU's general secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, told the M&G this is tantamount to abdication of government responsibility and wants it changed. "In the legislation it must be very clear that education cannot be sold," he said. "It's not a commodity. We're lobbying legislators because legislators have got a way of abdicating the responsibility we've given them when we voted for them and [they] hand it over to business. We're going to stop that." The union has announced plans to "launch and intensify a campaign against the privatisation in and of our education". SADTU's campaign would entail exposing the government backlog in building of schools, according to Maluleke. In an instance where an area does not have enough schools, "we need to report the government of South Africa to the United Nations in terms of the right to education. We have got to do that. "We have got to stand up and say, 'Here's a community in Hillbrow, Westville and so forth that does not have a school'. The government has got to provide schools. We must not accept it that there are no schools and therefore see mushrooming of these fly-by-night private schools. The government is supposed to say, 'Here's a school, we can transport the children to this particular area'. "If the government is not going to be responsive to the demand that is there, then we must report them because it is against the declaration on the universal right where it says government has a responsibility." From: http://mg.co.za/article/2015-09-03-the-rise-of-the-low-fee-private-school -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
