Accreditation delays an issue

UNDER the South African Constitution, anyone has the right to establish and maintain, at their own expense, an independent educational institution provided that such an institution does not discriminate directly or indirectly on the basis of race, and provided the institution is registered with the state and that it maintains standards that are not inferior to standards at comparable public educational institutions.

In those terms, starting a school of one’s own seems simple. That is, if you manage to successfully navigate the stringent conditions set out under the Schools Act, which stipulates all schools must register with the Department of Education, the applicable provincial acts and, if you wish to qualify for a state subsidy, comply with the National Norms and Standards for School Funding — all that before you are allowed to start operating.

The problem is, as the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa points out, the registration process and protocols require independent schools to submit certain information, such as enrolment data, which only becomes apparent when the school starts operating. It includes an accreditation process conducted by Umalusi.

That catch-22 situation means the newly established independent school is technically illegal.

A public service insider has given the assurance though that the issue is, well, a technicality. She says also that the delays in acquiring the accreditation from the accreditation agency Umalusi that is required to validate registration with the education department, must be blamed on the basic education and higher education departments.

Adding to the delay in gaining accreditation is the considerable cost involved in site visits and assessments, which has to be conducted by appropriately qualified personnel. Umalusi, the insider points out, has neither the budget nor the personnel to do its job any quicker.

With the department’s blessing, Umalusi finally announced its new accreditation process for private education institutions and private assessment bodies in June this year.

“While still waiting for the ministerial approval, Umalusi has been granting provisional accreditation to private education institutions and private assessment bodies,” its CEO, Mafu S Rakometsi, said at the time.

For a number of smaller institutions, some of which has been described by the department as “fly-by-nights”, the registration and accreditation process was too onerous and started operating without registering. Several institutions closed and their operators arrested.

Others, described in a report by the Centre of Development and Enterprise as SA’s “hidden assets” of education, have simply disappeared. One such radical assertion of a constitutional right is the increase of the number of children being schooled at home.

Home schooling, under the Schools Act, is a perfectly legal practice. The Pestalozzi Trust, a resource organisation supporting the Association of Homeschooling, gives the legal definition of home education as “education at the learner’s home”. It means a child who receives education at someone else’s home is not being home schooled and is not covered by the protection provided for home education by law. Home education does not include micro schools or cottage schools, it says.

Home-schooled children nevertheless have to be registered with the department, which the trust warns is also an onerous process. Homeschooled children are required to follow Curriculum 2000, though the trust says it is prepared to dispute its legality and contest it on behalf of its members.

The Association for Homeschooling estimates that about 90,000 children are being educated at home in SA.