Abstract
The right to basic education in South AfricaEducation is most effective within a culture of human rights. The right to education is one of the internationally recognised fundamental rights of a child.
In this article the right to education is discussed against the background of the development of children’s rights since 1924. Special attention is given to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, consisting of internationally acceptable principles and minimum standards for education and the general welfare of children.
In this article “basic education” is first defined, followed by a clarification of the international principle of “free education”. Although free education is not guaranteed by the South African Constitution, everyone has the constitutional right (as well as the obligation) to receive basic education.
Another prominent aspect of the article is a discussion of the provision of basic education in the learner’s mother tongue, as well as the extent of limitations to the freedom of choice of the language of instruction. This right of all people in the diverse South African society is weighed up against other constitutional principles such as reasonableness, practicability and affirmative action. What must be kept in mind as well, is that the understanding of the Bill of Rights is still in a developmental phase and subject to much interpretation, especially by the Constitutional Court.
Copyright information
- Ownership of copyright in terms of the Work remains with the authors.
- The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the Work, provided attribution is given to the place and detail of original publication, as set out in the official citation of the Work published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the Work on the authors’ or their institutions’ websites or institutional repositories.
Publication and user license
- The authors grant the title owner and the publisher an irrevocable license and first right and perpetual subsequent right to (a) publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Work in any form/medium, (b) to translate the Work into other languages, create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the Work or other derivative works based on the Work and exercise all of the rights set forth in (a) above in such translations, adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works, (c) to license others to do any or all of the above, and (d) to register the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the Definitive Work.
- The authors acknowledge and accept the user licence under which the Work will be published as set out in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Creative Commons Attribution License South Africa)
- The undersigned warrant that they have the authority to license these publication rights and that no portion of the copyright to the Work has been assigned or licensed previously to any other party.
Disclaimer: The publisher, editors and title owner accept no responsibility for any statement made or opinion expressed by any other person in this Work. Consequently, they will not be liable for any loss or damage sustained by any reader as a result of his or her action upon any statement or opinion in this Work.
In cases where a manuscript is NOT accepted for publication by the editorial board, the portions of this agreement regarding the publishing licensing shall be null and void and the authors will be free to submit this manuscript to any other publication for first publication.
Our copyright policies are author-friendly and protect the rights of our authors and publishing partners.