Spring Day 2018 had an important significance for Home Educators, because after waiting with bated breath for the new Policy on Home Education to wriggle through the humus and emerge as a rather ugly plant ….. nothing happened.
That the Policy was not promulgated by the 1st September means that for all intents and purposes, even if the Policy is promulgated to-day, it will have no real effect until August 2019.
Why is that?
In anticipation of the Policy, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) prematurely printed a “booklet”and issued it to the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs). That “booklet” states that homeschool registration for a subsequent year needs to be completed with the DBE “by September of the year proceeding [sic] the year in which home education is to commence”. This means that registration for 2019 would have had to be completed by September 2018.
In addition, this registration can be an “On line application” on the DBE’s website. We have searched and searched and can’t find this form.
As September 2018 has passed, applications will now only need to be made before September 2019 for the 2020 school-year. The DBE could perhaps change this, but it seems highly unlikely.
A dramatic turn around
In late July, the Department appeared confident that it would soon release the Policy. A press release stated that “The Department is currently preparing a gazette for promulgation.”
And so home educators waited and waited, but the Policy was not promulgated. As days turned into weeks it began to become evident that the Policy, even if promulgated, could not be practically implemented, as fewer and fewer days remained before the 1st September. The Department would surely have to give home educators at least a few weeks to register.
Sping Day 2018 came and went, and no Policy had been promulgated - i.e. the legal process of publishing the Policy in the government gazette.
Even though the critical September 1st deadline had passed, the DBE, in their quarterly report back to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education (PCBE -the Parliamentary Committee that deals with Basic Education) was still talking about promulgation, and explained that “Advocacy material that includes 1 000 booklets [The famous booklet], 1 000 flyers and 1 000 posters were distributed to Provinces, and DBE has 2 banners which are displayed during meetings." This report is likely to have been prepared in advance of the September 4th meeting but this does show that in August the DBE was still thinking about promulgating the Policy.
On the 26th September there was the first faint indication that the DBE had realised the Policy was heading into trouble. In the Department’s Annual Report to the PCBE the Policy wasn’t mentioned. That was strange but could just have been an oversight.
The Pestalozzi Trust had been arguing for some time that the Policy relied on the BELA Bill and the Policy couldn’t be promulgated until the Bill was passed. The famous “No Policy before Parliament” argument. No one can be sure, but perhaps pressure from the Trust, the letters of hundreds of homeschoolers, the help of political allies, and media pressure had given the DBE pause for thought.
Then a few days later, on the 29th September, home educators began receiving a letter from the DBE stating the following:
"Kindly be informed that further developments around the Policy on Home Education are currently under consideration, which essentially means that further engagements are put in abeyance until a further directive is issued which will also be duly communicated at the right time....”
What does this mean?
The simple answer is that, other than that the Policy is not moving forward, for now, nobody knows.
This could last until after the BELA Bill becomes law, sometime in 2021/2022. That would seem to be the most legally sound route for the DBE to follow. Any other approach would re-open the issue that the Policy clearly relies on a law that isn’t yet in effect. But who knows.
Even if, in a worst case scenario, the Policy gets promulgated right now, the Department would face the practical problem that the deadline for registration has passed. That gives the home education movement ample time to plan and take further action before August 2019.
It is clear that for all practical purposes the Policy is for now a zombie policy, not dead but not really alive. So until a new Policy is promulgated the old Policy (1999) remains in force and home education remains in the legal twilight zone.
In summary, the Policy isn’t gone, but nothing has changed. Home educators can continue to home educate as they have for the last twenty years, but as always, need to be ready to spring into action to defend their children’s rights.
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