Written by: Michael Swain, FOR SA Executive Director
Article source: JOY! Magazine

Schools and the education of children have long been recognised as an ideological battleground. “Give me a child till he is seven years old,” said St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Brotherhood in 1540, “and I will show you the man.” Education was a keystone of the Apartheid regime, where education was manipulated to maintain a system of social stratification based upon race, ethnicity, and language. As such, one of the major changes since 1994 was to replace the former State school system with a public school system. This is a partnership between Government (who largely provides and pays for the facilities, salaries, and teaching resources) and School Governing Bodies (SGBs) to represent the interests of parents, educators, and learners.

Major challenges in public schools
Religious freedom in public schools faced a major challenge in 2017 in the OGOD case, where an atheist group sought to ban religious observances and practices from public schools. FOR SA’s Legal Counsel appeared on behalf of one of the amicus curiae (“friends of the court”) to successfully oppose this motion. Although the judgement said that a public school may not (hold itself out to) promote a particular religion or religious ethos, it confirmed that the outward expression of all faiths can nevertheless be celebrated.

Freedom of vs freedom from religion
In public schools, SGBs are now responsible to develop policy on how these religious observances should take place, taking into account that these must be practiced equitably so that learners of all faiths (or no faith at all) can give outward expression to their religious beliefs. Attendance must also be free and voluntary. Subject to these conditions, Christian observances such as Bible readings, singing Christian songs, praying together at assembly or in class, or Scripture Union activities, may indeed continue in public schools. This is in keeping with the constitutional right to freedom of religion (in section 15 of the Constitution), rather than freedom from religion.

FOR SA is standing for everyone’s religious freedom
Another challenge came in the form of an attempt by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to impose ideologically liberal Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) content in public schools. Since it is impossible to teach on sex and sexuality without imposing a moral viewpoint, this violated the rights of parents to guide and direct their children’s education and upbringing, including religious and cultural education. FOR SA raised the alarm and helped to orchestrate a successful “push back”, which resulted in the DBE acknowledging the rights of schools (via their SGBs) to select the source material for the CSE element of the CAPS curriculum. In this way, FOR SA helped the religious freedom rights of parents, teachers, and learners to remain protected.

Upholding vital rights
By contrast, independent schools have greater freedom to subscribe to a particular religious ethos, values, etc. However, their autonomy is not immune from attack. In the “isiphandla case”, a learner was asked to remove a wristband that was part of a ceremony to connect him to his ancestors, because it contravened the ethos and code of conduct of his Christian private school. His parents are now asking the Johannesburg High Court to rule that the school unfairly discriminated against them on grounds of culture, as well as for R300 000 in damages. However, this would have major implications for the autonomy and constitutional rights of all faith-based independent schools of whatever faith. FOR SA is acting as an amicus curiae to uphold these vital rights.

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Date published: 29/09/2021
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only. unsplash.com

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