LearnFree is a volunteer organization of business people, professionals and academics working together to provide support to those promoting educational freedom in South Africa.
We became concerned about the micro-schooling sector in the wake of the hostile attitude that certain politicans and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) have displayed towards the sector. It was evident that the sector and its role were not understood. Anedoctal evidence that we had gathered indicated that the sector was larger than previously thought and catered to vulnerable children. We, therefore, decided to embark on a limited pilot study to examine this sector more closely.
The independent education sector has grown significantly in South Africa. A significant portion of this growth has been in segments that can be viewed as non- traditional i.e. low-fee independent schools, home education and the micro-school sector.
The low-fee independent school sector has been exhaustively researched. Home education is well known, although regrettably no statistically valid research into the numbers and distribution of learners receiving home education has been undertaken.
However, LearnFree has not been able to find any research into the micro-school sector.
The Policy on Home Education (2018) defines these institutions as follows: ‘ “illegal independent educational institution” - means an educational institution such as a cottage school, tutor centre, home school centre and micro schools operating like an independent school whilst unregistered in terms of the Act.’
Strictly speaking these insitutions are independent educational institutions and must be registered both in terms of the South African Schools Act (1996) and s29(3) of the Bill of Rights. Most of these institutions would like to be registered, however a number of practical diffilcuties hamper registartion. One being that there do not appear to be appropriate mechanisms to register small independent schools.
It does not appear that the Department of Basic Education or the Provincial Education departments (PEDs) have researched this sector.
As this pilot study shows, these institutions:
cater to a signficiant number of learners with special education needs.
are seen by educational professionals as a suitable environment for the education of learners, especially LSEN learners.
They are small in terms of the number of learners enrolled in each school but there are potentially a large number of these institutions. Initial indications are that these are concentrated in Gauteng and the Western Cape, the two provinces whose public education systems face the most pressure to provide places for learners in public schools.
Attempting to close these institutions without additional research and insight will impair the rights of children to education and have possible unforeseen impacts on
particularly the Gauteng and Western Cape education systems. In the Western Cape these affects may be particularly severe in the greater Cape Town metropole.
Key Findings
Registration
Only 1 micro-school was registered with a Provincial Education Department.
Nearly 80% of micro-schools want to be registered. Some of those whostated that they do not want to be registered have expressed concern that registration will imply having to conform to curricula or teaching approaches not suited to their learners. So the number willing to register if these concerns are addressed is likely to be higher.
Demographics
Nearly 80% of schools cater to less than 20 learners. This creates a legal problem as most PEDs will either, as a matter of stated policy, or as a matter of practicality not consider registering an institution with less than 20 learners. However, SASA makes no provision for schools under a certain size being exempt from registration.
Micro-schools are distributed predominantly in the following three provinces:
Gauteng 45%
WesternCape 29%
KZN 23%
In the Western Cape 50% are in the Cape Metropole.
Learners with special educational needs (LSEN)
All schools surveyed have at least some learners with special educational needs.
Nearly 20% cater exclusively to LSEN.
In just more than 40% LSEN make up more that 50% of the learners at the school.
Integration with the formal educational system.
Micro-schools are highly integrated with the formal education system.
In 40% of schools more than 50% of learners had been placed in the
school on the recommendation of an educational psychologist, registered
teacher or other educational professional.
In another 24% of schools between 25% and 50% had been placed in the
school on the recommendation of an educational psychologist, registered teacher or other educational professional.
With the completion of the pilot study a more comprehensive study will be conducted.
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