Court ruling to alter face of SA schooling
Shope Sithole SCN
ANC welcomes the Constitutional Court judgment last week which ruled in favour of the Gauteng education department regarding the school admissions regulations. This follows the complaint lodged by the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools to the validity of amendments made to regulations around pupil admissions in Gauteng, which were promulgated in 2012. The judgment empowers the government and it proves that all our schools belong to all our children, not the privileged few. No parent will be asked a salary slip before their children are admitted in our schools anymore.
They Federation of Governing Bodies of South African School wanted the regulations removed claiming that they were not reasonable and justifiable in terms of the Gauteng Schools Education Act of 1995. They also said there was conflict in regulations between provincial and national legislation. However the court ruled that there was not conflict between the two sets of regulations. The court directed the MEC to set feeder zones for Gauteng within 12 months. It held as rational a regulation which disallows prospective schools from requesting confidential information from a pupil's current school. ANC regards the call made by a right wing political party, Front National South Africa for parents to find alternatives to government schooling after a court ruling as irrational and conservative.
