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      "body": "Congratulations @sahomeschoolers! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@sahomeschoolers/birthday2.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@sahomeschoolers) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=sahomeschoolers)_</sub>\n\n\n**Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:**\n<table><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/the-steem-community-has-lost-an-epic-member-farewell-woflhart\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQWnM36SWCPGn98nY83M1ArgweMz5fnovQEp2E4FiDdug/Wolfhart_header.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/the-steem-community-has-lost-an-epic-member-farewell-woflhart\">The Steem community has lost an epic member! Farewell @woflhart!</a></td></tr><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemtoolbar/@steemitboard/steemtoolbar-update-display-bug-fixed\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/http://i.cubeupload.com/7CiQEO.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemtoolbar/@steemitboard/steemtoolbar-update-display-bug-fixed\">SteemitBoard - Witness Update</a></td></tr><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitboard/do-not-miss-the-coming-rocky-mountain-steem-meetup-and-get-a-new-community-badge\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUphCGZFWgt6bJ1XTtunV7esnwy6bxnGqcLcHAV3NEqnQ/meetup-rocky-mountain.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitboard/do-not-miss-the-coming-rocky-mountain-steem-meetup-and-get-a-new-community-badge\">Do not miss the coming Rocky Mountain Steem Meetup and get a new community badge!</a></td></tr></table>\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "[YOUR ADDRESS]\n\nThe MEC of Education\n\n[SEE NAME OF MEC FOR YOUR PROVINCE BELOW]\n[SEE ADRESS DETAILS FOR YOUR PROVINCE BELOW]\n[SEE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR YOUR PROVINCE BELOW]\n\nDear Honorable MEC\n\n[WRITE IN YOUR OWN WORDS THE CONTENT BELOW]\n\nA new policy for home education was approved during the CEM meeting on 19 July 2018, and to the best of our knowledge, education MEC’s from all provinces were part of this meeting.\n\nIn response to a question by a member of parliament (Question 2190) on the policy, the Minister of Basic made the following statement : “The policy is in line with the provisions of the proposed Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill. Clause 25 of the BELA Bill provides a legislative framework for the policy.” Since the BELA Bill has not even been submitted to parliament, it means that CEM has approved a policy based on empowering provisions that come from a law that does not exist yet. This means the CEM has approved an unlawful policy.\n\nIf this policy is promulgated, education officials will act on this policy as if it were law, and this will cause an increase of conflict between homeschooling parents and education officials, which might even escalate to unnecessary court cases. Such unnecessary conflict will not be in the interest of home learners that will necessarily get involved in these conflict.\n\nIn the answer the minister also indicated that the next CEM meeting will be on 13 September. In the interests of the best interest of the homeschooled children in this country, we would like to request you to submit a motion to the CEM meeting on 13 September to request that the policy on home education is not published until BELA Bill is promulgated.]\n\nRegards\n\nYOUR NAME\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nGauteng\n   Name of MEC : Hon Panyaza Lesufi\n   Address : 111 Commissioner St, Troyeville\n   Email : [email protected]\n\nNorth West\n   Name of MEC : Hon Jonas Sello Lehari\n   Address : 2nd Floor, Garona Building, Mmabatho\n   Email : Submit letter via website at http://www.nwdesd.gov.za/aboutus/mec.html\n\nFree State\n   Name of MEC : Hon P. H. I. Makgoe\n   Address : 55 Elizabeth Street, Fidel Castro Building, Bloemfontein\n   Email : [email protected]\n\nLimpopo\n   Name of MEC : Hon Ishmael Kgetjepe\n   Address : Department of Education Building, 113 Biccard and Excelsior Streets, Polokwane, Limpopo, 0699\n   Email : [email protected]\n\nMpumalanga\n   Name of MEC : Hon Sibusiso Malaza\n   Address : Building 5, Government Boulevard, Riverside Park, Mbombela\n   Email : [email protected]\n\nNorthern Cape\n   Name of MEC : Hon Martha Bartlett\n   Address : 156 Barkly Road, Homestead, Kimberley, 8301\n   Email : [email protected] / [email protected]\n\nEastern Cape\n   Name of MEC : Hon. M. Makupula\n   Address : Private Bag X0032, Bhisho, 5605\n   Email : [email protected]\n\nKwazulu Natal\n   Name of MEC : Hon. Mthandeni Dlungwane\n   Address : 247 Burger Street,     Pietermaritzburg, 3200\n   Email : [email protected] / [email protected]",
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      "author": "steemcleaners",
      "body": "[Source](https://www.facebook.com/eendracht.sentrum/posts/1931111143770067)\nThere is reasonable evidence that this article has been spun, rewritten, or reworded. Repeatedly posting such content is considered spam. \r\n\r\nSpam is discouraged by the community, and may result in action from the [cheetah bot](https://steemit.com/faq.html#What_is__cheetah).\r\n\r\n[More information and tips on sharing content.](https://steemcleaners.org/copy-paste-plagiarism/)\r\n\r\nIf you believe this comment is in error, please contact us in [#disputes on Discord](https://discord.gg/YR2Wy5A)",
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      "body": "@@ -4863,16 +4863,15 @@\n the \n-articles\n+section\n  on \n@@ -6194,16 +6194,76 @@\n research\n+, and was positively received by the home education movement\n .%0A%0AIn th\n@@ -7913,17 +7913,17 @@\n ying for\n-%0A\n+ \n registra\n@@ -9526,16 +9526,16 @@\n cient.%0A%0A\n-\n * The dr\n@@ -9657,20 +9657,266 @@\n plaining the policy.\n+%0A%0A* Representatives of the home education movement would like to meet to ask the minister not to publish the policy until the above issues have been resolved, and it would be appreciated if an Member of Parliament could facilitate such a meeting.\n",
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      "body": "**1. Summary**\n\nThe DBE is drafting the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) Bill, and has approved a new policy on Home Education. The home education movement is seriously concerned about the process followed to draft the legislation and approve the policy. The pre-mature publication of a booklet on home education by the DBE also raises concerns that BELA Bill and the policy will attempt to transform home education to the exact opposite of it’s nature.\n\n**2. What is Home Education?**\n\n*“Home education is the oldest form of child education. It honours and represents a parent's preference or wish to facilitate the education of their children themselves. Home education encompasses exposure of the learner to the knowledge, skills and values required by an active community member and citizen of the modern world and for admission to further education, higher education or employment.”*  Home educators form part of a vast community that incorporates, other parents and children, schools, tutors, curriculum providers, sporting, cultural and religious groups. Home education allows for flexibility of learning provision, guided self-study and the use of a variety of media\n\n**3. Home Education in South Africa**\n\nThe right to home education was not recognized under the Apartheid State. Home educators were actively persecuted and in 1993 the parents of three children were successfully prosecuted and sentenced to a jail term. While the parents were jailed in Johannesburg their three children were placed in an orphanage in the Eastern Cape. It appears this was done to make contact between the family members difficult. The parents were released from jail under the new democratic dispensation.\n\nAfter the adoption of the new constitution, the right to home educate was recognized by s51 of the SA School Act of 1996. Home education has experienced exponential growth. From a handful of families in 1994 to an estimated 100 000 in 2017. Worldwide, home education is the fastest growing type of education.\n\nThe rapid growth in the number of children educated at home, the diversity in homeschooling methods and approaches and the revolution in learning technologies worldwide has led to the current regulatory framework being outdated. In order to remedy this in 2012 the DBE began the process of developing a new policy.\n\n**4. The diverse and distributed nature of home education**\n\nThe homeschooling movement is diverse and distributed. It consists of a number of associations, the Pestalozzi Trust (a legal defence fund for home education), support groups, sport organisations, special interest groups, community-based schools, educational providers etc. etc. Due to a lack of administrative capabilities and unlawful registration practises in the provinces, more than 95% of home learners are not registered.\n\nHomeschooling families make use of a variety of educational approaches such as traditional curriculums, unit studies, classical education, Charlotte Mason, unschooling etc. Around these educational approaches a variety of special interest groups such as curriculum providers and support groups were established. Hundreds of community-based schools have been established in urban and rural areas. Since these community-based schools are often too small to register as private schools, many are not registered and operate under the radar.\n\n**5. The need for extensive consultation**\n\nDue to the diverse nature of the homeschooling movement, it is very important that all the various role players should get the opportunity to submit their comments. Otherwise it can easily happen that legislation will outlaw educational forms that provide a valuable service in communities, as an unintended consequence. Due to the distributed nature of the homeschooling movement, it is also important that more time is allowed for submissions. Because the various role players are not registered with a single organisation, it takes much more time for information on making written and oral submissions to reach all role players.\n\n**6. BELA Bill drafted without consultation or independent research**\n\nThe Socio Economic Impact Assessment Study (SEIAS) for BELA Bill shows that the homeschooling movement was not consulted, and the impact of the bill on the homeschooling movement was not considered.\n\nOn 13 October 2017, the DBE invited public comment on the draft Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill). Homeschool organisations did not receive any prior warning of the publication of the Bill, and the public was given less than a month to submit comments. Given the nature of the homeschooling movement, public participation allowed for BELA Bill cannot be viewed as sufficient and the comments that were provided cannot be viewed as comprehensive or complete.\n\nSince almost no independent research was done on home education in South Africa, the articles on home education in BELA Bill cannot be viewed as research based.\n\nDue to the fact that the homeschool related changes of BELA Bill were not based on research or inputs from the affected parties, and despite the unreasonable short time given for submitting comment, more that 1000 letters with comments were submitted. DBE Director General Mathanzima Mweli during a parliamentary briefing session described the reaction of parents to the BELA Bill as something that *‘the word avalanche would not describe’* and something *‘that he had never seen in his career in public service’.*\n\n**7. Home Education Policy drafted without meaningful consultation or research**\n\nThe DBE started working on a new policy in 2012. Initially the process did not include representatives from the home education movement. After lobbying the DBE through various means the DBE began a process of consultation with the home education movement in 2014.\n\nIn 2014 and 2015 the DBE invited representatives of the homeschooling movement to attend meetings on a new home education policy. Representatives experienced the meetings as positive due to recommendations which the DBE made in its 2nd Draft Discussion Document in 2015. This document proposed a way forward through using a consultative relationship based on mutual trust and independent research.\n\nIn the workgroup meetings following this it soon became evident that the DBE was not going to implement any of the key suggestions and was in fact going to ignore their own draft document. Home education representatives began to conclude that the DBE had a pre-determined outcome in mind and that the second draft discussion document was merely window dressing. Rather than being co-opted in this sham process the home education representatives withdrew. Making it clear that they would act as consultants to the DBE but would not allow their presence to be used as a means of legitimising an illegitimate process.\n\nDespite the flawed consultation process, on17 November 2017 the DBE released a Draft Policy on Home Education and called for comments within 21 days. Despite the short period, a total of about 750 letters were sent to the Department of Basic Education by 8 December.\n\nA policy is supposed to provide guidance to government officials on how to implement a law. The draft home education policy referred to the BELA Bill that has not even been submitted to parliament yet. Therefore, this policy provides guidance on how to implement a law that does not exist yet. This is a recipe for chaos.\n\nThe policy which pre-empts a law that was not even submitted to parliament, is not backed by independent research and has followed a seriously flawed consultation process was approved by the Council for Education Ministers on 19 July 2018. To date however, this policy was not published yet.\n\n**8. DBE Booklet on home education attempts to destroy the nature of home education**\n\nIn certain provinces home educators who were renewing or applying for\nregistration were being given a booklet and told that “a new policy applies”. As of the date of writing no new policy has been promulgated and gazetted.\n\nThis appears yet again to be an example of officials imposing procedures on home educators that have no basis in law or policy.\n\nHowever, the premature release of this booklet and attempts to enforce it on home educators gives a possible insight into the manner in which the new Policy on Home Education and the BELA Bill will be implemented.\n\nIt seems that the goal of BELA Bill and the new policy is to transform home education into Public-School-at-Home. Government has come to realize that home education is here to stay. Therefore they do not try to stop home education and get home educators to take their children to overcrowded schools. However, they want parents to provide public-school-at-home and act as unpaid teachers working for the DBE. They see the home as a mere satellite campus of the public school. It is an attempt to transform home education from a diverse and distributed form of education into a uniform and centrally controlled form of state education at home.\n\n**9. What the home education movement wants**\n\nThe home education movement wants to be treated fairly, just like others in society. This means:\n\n* No legislation or policy is drafted without the availability of independent research.\n\n* No legislation or policy is drafted without extensive public participation. Due to the diverse and distributed nature of home education, the traditional publication in the gazette and allowing 30 days for comments is not sufficient.\n\n* The drafting of legislation is done in the correct sequence. First national legislation, then policy and then booklets explaining the policy.",
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      "body": "**1. Summary**\n\nThe DBE is drafting the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) Bill, and has approved a new policy on Home Education. The home education movement is seriously concerned about the process followed to draft the legislation and approve the policy. The pre-mature publication of a booklet on home education by the DBE also raises concerns that BELA Bill and the policy will attempt to transform home education to the exact opposite of it’s nature.\n\n**2. What is Home Education?**\n\n*“Home education is the oldest form of child education. It honours and represents a parent's preference or wish to facilitate the education of their children themselves. Home education encompasses exposure of the learner to the knowledge, skills and values required by an active community member and citizen of the modern world and for admission to further education, higher education or employment.”*  Home educators form part of a vast community that incorporates, other parents and children, schools, tutors, curriculum providers, sporting, cultural and religious groups. Home education allows for flexibility of learning provision, guided self-study and the use of a variety of media\n\n**3. Home Education in South Africa**\n\nThe right to home education was not recognized under the Apartheid State. Home educators were actively persecuted and in 1993 the parents of three children were successfully prosecuted and sentenced to a jail term. While the parents were jailed in Johannesburg their three children were placed in an orphanage in the Eastern Cape. It appears this was done to make contact between the family members difficult. The parents were released from jail under the new democratic dispensation.\n\nAfter the adoption of the new constitution, the right to home educate was recognized by s51 of the SA School Act of 1996. Home education has experienced exponential growth. From a handful of families in 1994 to an estimated 100 000 in 2017. Worldwide, home education is the fastest growing type of education.\n\nThe rapid growth in the number of children educated at home, the diversity in homeschooling methods and approaches and the revolution in learning technologies worldwide has led to the current regulatory framework being outdated. In order to remedy this in 2012 the DBE began the process of developing a new policy.\n\n**4. The diverse and distributed nature of home education**\n\nThe homeschooling movement is diverse and distributed. It consists of a number of associations, the Pestalozzi Trust (a legal defence fund for home education), support groups, sport organisations, special interest groups, community-based schools, educational providers etc. etc. Due to a lack of administrative capabilities and unlawful registration practises in the provinces, more than 95% of home learners are not registered.\n\nHomeschooling families make use of a variety of educational approaches such as traditional curriculums, unit studies, classical education, Charlotte Mason, unschooling etc. Around these educational approaches a variety of special interest groups such as curriculum providers and support groups were established. Hundreds of community-based schools have been established in urban and rural areas. Since these community-based schools are often too small to register as private schools, many are not registered and operate under the radar.\n\n**5. The need for extensive consultation**\n\nDue to the diverse nature of the homeschooling movement, it is very important that all the various role players should get the opportunity to submit their comments. Otherwise it can easily happen that legislation will outlaw educational forms that provide a valuable service in communities, as an unintended consequence. Due to the distributed nature of the homeschooling movement, it is also important that more time is allowed for submissions. Because the various role players are not registered with a single organisation, it takes much more time for information on making written and oral submissions to reach all role players.\n\n**6. BELA Bill drafted without consultation or independent research**\n\nThe Socio Economic Impact Assessment Study (SEIAS) for BELA Bill shows that the homeschooling movement was not consulted, and the impact of the bill on the homeschooling movement was not considered.\n\nOn 13 October 2017, the DBE invited public comment on the draft Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill). Homeschool organisations did not receive any prior warning of the publication of the Bill, and the public was given less than a month to submit comments. Given the nature of the homeschooling movement, public participation allowed for BELA Bill cannot be viewed as sufficient and the comments that were provided cannot be viewed as comprehensive or complete.\n\nSince almost no independent research was done on home education in South Africa, the articles on home education in BELA Bill cannot be viewed as research based.\n\nDue to the fact that the homeschool related changes of BELA Bill were not based on research or inputs from the affected parties, and despite the unreasonable short time given for submitting comment, more that 1000 letters with comments were submitted. DBE Director General Mathanzima Mweli during a parliamentary briefing session described the reaction of parents to the BELA Bill as something that *‘the word avalanche would not describe’* and something *‘that he had never seen in his career in public service’.*\n\n**7. Home Education Policy drafted without meaningful consultation or research**\n\nThe DBE started working on a new policy in 2012. Initially the process did not include representatives from the home education movement. After lobbying the DBE through various means the DBE began a process of consultation with the home education movement in 2014.\n\nIn 2014 and 2015 the DBE invited representatives of the homeschooling movement to attend meetings on a new home education policy. Representatives experienced the meetings as positive due to recommendations which the DBE made in its 2nd Draft Discussion Document in 2015. This document proposed a way forward through using a consultative relationship based on mutual trust and independent research.\n\nIn the workgroup meetings following this it soon became evident that the DBE was not going to implement any of the key suggestions and was in fact going to ignore their own draft document. Home education representatives began to conclude that the DBE had a pre-determined outcome in mind and that the second draft discussion document was merely window dressing. Rather than being co-opted in this sham process the home education representatives withdrew. Making it clear that they would act as consultants to the DBE but would not allow their presence to be used as a means of legitimising an illegitimate process.\n\nDespite the flawed consultation process, on17 November 2017 the DBE released a Draft Policy on Home Education and called for comments within 21 days. Despite the short period, a total of about 750 letters were sent to the Department of Basic Education by 8 December.\n\nA policy is supposed to provide guidance to government officials on how to implement a law. The draft home education policy referred to the BELA Bill that has not even been submitted to parliament yet. Therefore, this policy provides guidance on how to implement a law that does not exist yet. This is a recipe for chaos.\n\nThe policy which pre-empts a law that was not even submitted to parliament, is not backed by independent research and has followed a seriously flawed consultation process was approved by the Council for Education Ministers on 19 July 2018. To date however, this policy was not published yet.\n\n**8. DBE Booklet on home education attempts to destroy the nature of home education**\n\nIn certain provinces home educators who were renewing or applying for\nregistration were being given a booklet and told that “a new policy applies”. 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      "body": "@@ -6161,12 +6161,493 @@\n s discussed.\n+%0A%0A1. It was clear that some speakers targeted their speech at the committee with strong arguments showing the flaws in the bill. Other speakers targeted the audience to get an applause from the audience, to show that his arguments have public support. When homeschoolers present at a hearings, it is important to do both. There must be a lot of homeschoolers in the audience to applaud those speakers that target the audience. This has an important effect on the committee as well.\n",
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      "body": "Today, on the 21st of August 2018, I attended the public hearings about the Western Cape Provincial School Education Amendment Bill, with the purpose to learn how these hearing work, so that the homeschooling movement in South Africa can prepare for the moment when there will be public hearing on the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) Bill.\n\nWhen we arrived at the building, there was a group teacher union members toy-toying in front of the building. We had to enter the building with them, which caused us to be slightly late. It was however in a festive spirit and they made us feel like comrades. After going through security we were lead to the 7th floor where the chambers of the provincial legislature is. Although security did not allow attendees to bring in posters, some still managed to smuggle in a few.\n\n# The proceedings\n\nAttendees were first allowed to raise points of order. There was one person that strongly objected to fact that the public hearings were held during Muslim religious days, and this objection was  noted.\n\nThe hearing then continued with senior officials from the Western Cape Education Department providing an overview of the legislative changes. With little passion, various head of departments discussed various parts of the act.\n\nAfter the overview, objectors were provided the opportunity to present their oral testimonies. All testimonies were done by organizations such as ANC, SACP, Equal Education etc. Nobody spoke in an individual capacity. \n\nThe lines of arguments that were followed by the various speakers are as followed:\n\n1. The legislative changes are in conflict with other legislation. For example, it was highlighted several times that this provincial legislation is in conflict with national legislation.\n1. The legislative changes will have negative effects on individuals and communities.\n1. Some testimonies were mere political rhetoric with sweeping ideological statements (about colonialism, leavy suburbs, racism) , threats and personal attacks against Helen Zille and Debbie Schafer. Statements like : \"*We are telling them to go to hell.*\" This speech received a lot of support from the audience, but also a lot of laughter.\n1. The legislative changes does not address issues that are more important, such as safety.\n1. The legislative changes are based on flawed assumptions.\n1. There is no research that provides evidence that the legislative changes will have the intended effect.\n1. There is already existing legislation that adequately addresses the issues that the legislative changes claims to address.\n1. The legislative changes will cost a lot of money with no proven benefits to justify the costs. There is no room in the already constrained budget for these additional costs.\n1. The legislative changes are vague and will give the minister a lot of discretion without the possibility to be held accountable.\n1. No alternative solutions were proposed. All parties proposed that the law is scrapped.\n1. The legislative changes will only benefit the rich and not the poor.\n1. The drafting of the bill was done in an way that was not transparent and accountable.\n1. The bill is not worth the paper is written on, but has cost a lot of money to compile. The costs of expensive consultants to compile the bill and the time of officials that assisted.\n1. There is no demand for the legislative changes from the public.\n1. The legislative attempts to fix things that are not broken.\n\nAfter the objectors finished their testimonies, members of the committee were allowed to speak. One member proposed that the committee takes the position that the bill is rejected. Another committee proposes that this proposal cannot be considered until the process was completed. A third committee member described the drafting of the bill as a waste of money. A fourth committee member also proposes to reject the bill. Not one committee member spoke in favour of the bill.\n\nThe chairman closed the meeting by wishing the muslims in the meeting a blessed Eid.\n\n# Lessons learned\n\nSubmissions can be made on behalf of an organization or as an individual. In the opening of their testimony, organizations must introduce themselves and show who they represent and how big their support is. When the homeschooling movement makes submissions, there is no reason why a large number of homeschooling parents cannot make testimonies in their individual capacities.\n\nParties can hand in a written submission or / and request an opportunity to do an oral presentation. When making an oral testimony, there is no opportunity to display a PowerPoint presentation together with oral presentation. The power of your testimony will depend on your words only.\n\n## Some tips about attending the hearings and presenting oral testimonies\n\n1. Come early, because there might be unions or political parties that picket in front of the building and make it difficult to get into the chamber in time. If you are early, you can also choose a seat in the room where you can have eye contact with the committee that must listen to the presentation.\n\n1. Do not forget to take proof of ID with you. This might be required by security.\n\n1. Prepare a speech that can effectively convey your most important points in 10 minutes. The homeschool movement can create opportunities for people that are going make oral presentations to practice their presentation in front of an audience before the hearings.\n\n1. If the homeschool movement wants to convey multiple points, they should make multiple submissions that focus on the different points. Certain points can be conveyed by organizations and other by homeschooling parents in their individual capacities.\n\n1. The oral presentation will probably done while seated and speaking through a microphone , and you might not have eye contact with your audience. Make sure that you sit close to the microphone, so that you can be heard. Multiple points can also be made by making some points at one hearing and other points at another hearing.\n\n1. The audience can show support for the speakers by applauding. It would therefore be good to pack the chamber with homeschoolers when BELA Bill is discussed.",
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      "body": "Today, on the 21st of August 2018, I attended the public hearings about the Western Cape Provincial School Education Amendment Bill, with the purpose to learn how these hearing work, so that the homeschooling movement in South Africa can prepare for the moment when there will be public hearing on the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) Bill.\n\nWhen we arrived at the building, there was a group teacher union members toy-toying in front of the building. We had to enter the building with them, which caused us to be slightly late. It was however in a festive spirit and they made us feel like comrades. After going through security we were lead to the 7th floor where the chambers of the provincial legislature is. Although security did not allow attendees to bring in posters, some still managed to smuggle in a few.\n\n# The proceedings\n\nAttendees were first allowed to raise points of order. There was one person that strongly objected to fact that the public hearings were held during Muslim religious days, and this objection was  noted.\n\nThe hearing then continued with senior officials from the Western Cape Education Department providing an overview of the legislative changes. With little passion, various head of departments discussed various parts of the act.\n\nAfter the overview, objectors were provided the opportunity to present their oral testimonies. All testimonies were done by organizations such as ANC, SACP, Equal Education etc. Nobody spoke in an individual capacity. \n\nThe lines of arguments that were followed by the various speakers are as followed:\n\n1. The legislative changes are in conflict with other legislation. For example, it was highlighted several times that this provincial legislation is in conflict with national legislation.\n1. The legislative changes will have negative effects on individuals and communities.\n1. Some testimonies were mere political rhetoric with sweeping ideological statements (about colonialism, leavy suburbs, racism) , threats and personal attacks against Helen Zille and Debbie Schafer. Statements like : \"*We are telling them to go to hell.*\" This speech received a lot of support from the audience, but also a lot of laughter.\n1. The legislative changes does not address issues that are more important, such as safety.\n1. The legislative changes are based on flawed assumptions.\n1. There is no research that provides evidence that the legislative changes will have the intended effect.\n1. There is already existing legislation that adequately addresses the issues that the legislative changes claims to address.\n1. The legislative changes will cost a lot of money with no proven benefits to justify the costs. There is no room in the already constrained budget for these additional costs.\n1. The legislative changes are vague and will give the minister a lot of discretion without the possibility to be held accountable.\n1. No alternative solutions were proposed. All parties proposed that the law is scrapped.\n1. The legislative changes will only benefit the rich and not the poor.\n1. The drafting of the bill was done in an way that was not transparent and accountable.\n1. The bill is not worth the paper is written on, but has cost a lot of money to compile. The costs of expensive consultants to compile the bill and the time of officials that assisted.\n1. There is no demand for the legislative changes from the public.\n1. The legislative attempts to fix things that are not broken.\n\nAfter the objectors finished their testimonies, members of the committee were allowed to speak. One member proposed that the committee takes the position that the bill is rejected. Another committee proposes that this proposal cannot be considered until the process was completed. A third committee member described the drafting of the bill as a waste of money. A fourth committee member also proposes to reject the bill. Not one committee member spoke in favour of the bill.\n\nThe chairman closed the meeting by wishing the muslims in the meeting a blessed Eid.\n\n# Lessons learned\n\nSubmissions can be made on behalf of an organization or as an individual. In the opening of their testimony, organizations must introduce themselves and show who they represent and how big their support is. When the homeschooling movement makes submissions, there is no reason why a large number of homeschooling parents cannot make testimonies in their individual capacities.\n\nParties can hand in a written submission or / and request an opportunity to do an oral presentation. When making an oral testimony, there is no opportunity to display a PowerPoint presentation together with oral presentation. The power of your testimony will depend on your words only.\n\n## Some tips about attending the hearings and presenting oral testimonies\n\n1. Come early, because there might be unions or political parties that picket in front of the building and make it difficult to get into the chamber in time. If you are early, you can also choose a seat in the room where you can have eye contact with the committee that must listen to the presentation.\n\n1. Do not forget to take proof of ID with you. This might be required by security.\n\n1. Prepare a speech that can effectively convey your most important points in 10 minutes. The homeschool movement can create opportunities for people that are going make oral presentations to practice their presentation in front of an audience before the hearings.\n\n1. If the homeschool movement wants to convey multiple points, they should make multiple submissions that focus on the different points. 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      "body": "Hello @sahomeschoolers, upv0t3\r\nThis is a <b>free</b> service for new steemit users, to support them and motivate them to continue generating valuable content for the community.\r\n<3 This is a heart, or an ice cream, you choose.\r\n\r\n<h1>:) </h1>\r\nR4ND0M:\r\n6546 7132 8528 3679\n3262 7706 5577 3603\n7111 2656 9726 6790\n7916 2128 7890 7404\n",
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      "body": "Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:\nhttp://pestalozzi.org/web2/en/2018/03/05/the-first-battle-in-the-war-against-freedom-in-education/",
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      "body": "After home education was legalised in 1996 in South Africa, it has grown exponentially for about 20 years. In this period it has made a difference in the lives of thousands of families. Children could develop their personality in a safe environment and receive an education that was adapted to their individual needs. In this period there were a few attempts by the state to interfere in home education, but the mere existence of a legal defence fund (Pestalozzi Trust) prohibited officials to follow through with these attempts. This started changing in 2011 and resulted in the publication of Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill) in 2017.\n\n**Exponential growth**\n\nIn 1996 there were about 50 homeschooling families in South Africa. In 2011 a question on home education was included in the national census. According to the results, 56 857 learners received home education in South Africa. If all these learners were to be accommodated in schools it would require 130 schools, 2000 teachers at a cost of R700 million per year. Using this result, the 2017 estimate is that there are about 100 000 home learners.\n\nBecause the majority of these home learners were not registered with the state, there was pressure on the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to review the home education policy in order to satisfy the desire of the education minister to bring home education in conformance with *“the formal education system”*.\n\n**Invited to be ignored**\n\nBecause a new policy requires public participation, representatives from homeschool associations and the Pestalozzi Trust were invited to meetings with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in October 2014 and July 2015. Many of the associations were sceptic about attending these meetings, because it often happens that the DBE pretends to consult with stakeholders while steamrolling a pre-determined outcome. Regardless of the valid reasons for scepticism, the associations decided to attend the meetings as an act of good faith. The meetings were generally experienced as positive with ample opportunity for interactive discussion and present the case for home education.\n\nAfter these two meetings, the actual drafting process was started by the Working Groups. Three people from homeschooling organisations received invites to these meetings in their personal capacities. Before the 1st workgroup meeting on 14 October 2015 an agenda and a Progress Report was distributed. The progress report makes the following statement : *“Government remains the ultimate guardian of each and every child in the country and this includes the responsibility of ensuring that every child receives education.”* These statements caused the invitees to become increasingly concerned that the purpose of the working group meeting was not to consult with stakeholders, but to use stakeholders merely to provide legitimacy to a pre-determined outcome. During the working group meetings these concerns were confirmed, and after the 2nd meeting all the homeschoolers withdrew from the workgroup activities. It was clear to all that the homeschool organisations were invited merely to be ignored.\n\n**BELA Bill and the Avalanche**\n\nWhereas a flawed public participation process was followed in drafting the home education policy, there was no public participation on home education involved in the drafting of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill). On 13 October 2017, the DBE invited public comment on the BELA Bill. Homeschool organisations did not receive any prior notification about this and the public was given less than a month to submit comments. If a vigilant home educator did not notice this in a press article and alert organisations of home educators, the deadline for comment could easily have passed by without any comment or input from the home education community.\n\nThe most important changes that the bill introduces are the following:\n\n1. The content and skills of the curriculum to be used by home learners must be at least comparable to the national curriculum.\n 1. Home learners must be assessed annually by registered assessors at their own cost.\n 1. Home learners are not allowed to enrol for alternative matric qualifications such as Cambridge and GED.\n 1. The penalty for not attending school is increased from 6 months to 6 years imprisonment.\n\nThe main objections to the BELA Bill were the following:\n\n 1. The provision that home learners must register with the state is unreasonable and negatively affects the interests of children. It is untenable that parents, who are primarily responsible for the education of their children, require permission from the state to choose home education.\n 1. The requirement that the proposed home education programme must cover contents and skills comparable to the national curriculum prohibits parents from choosing a curriculum or educational approach that would be in the best interests of the child, and which would not necessarily cover comparable skills and contents.\n 1. The requirement for annual assessments by external assessors serves no educational purpose, covertly enforces the national curriculum and will be costly to homeschooling parents and the taxpayer.\n 1. The provision to outlaw alternative matric qualifications such as Cambridge and GED would significantly limit the rights of young people that do not have a school leaving diploma to get access to further education and employment.\n\nOn 10 Nov 2017 the Pestalozzi Trust and all the homeschool associations submitted their comments on the BELA Bill to the DBE. A total of about 1000 letters from homeschoolers were sent to the DBE. An senior official described this response as an avalanche during a meeting in Parliament.\n\nFrom the process followed and the content of the bill, it seems that the intention of the DBE is to gain control over home education as well as financially benefit unions and state compliant curriculum suppliers, without consultating homeschooling parents and without providing any evidence that such measures will be in the best interests of the affected children.\n\n**The long road to freedom**\n\nThe introduction of this bill is the first battle in a war between the state and parents over the hearts and minds of their children. This war could last for decades and will be waged in all spheres of government namely the executive, legislative and judicial spheres. South African homeschooling parents will need to get involved to resist changes that negatively affect home education by using all opportunities to attend public meetings, writing letters, interacting with the media, talking to government officials and members of parliament, etc.\n\nHome education is a type of education with a track record of success to prepare children to become independent and productive citizens in the 21st century. If parents allow the state to gain control over home education and manage it into destruction, as it has done with many departments and state owned entities, it will not only destroy the future of many children, but also seriously harm the hope for a better future in South Africa.\n\n![BELA Bill](https://www.sahomeschoolers.org/images/easyblog_articles/536/b2ap3_large_BELABill.jpg)",
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      "body": "In 2017 the education sector reached a crossroad that will determine the future of education for the next decades. At the start of the school year tens of thousands of learners in Gauteng and Western Cape could not be placed in public schools. In the last quarter the state proposed new legislation to reduce the powers of School Governing Bodies (SGB’s) of public schools and to bring mainly unregulated homeschooling under state control.\n\nPublic schools are largely managed by SGB’s elected by parents. The SGB’s have powers to determine the admission policy, appoint teachers and charge school fees. In some public schools, SGB’s appoint additional teachers at the cost of parents. In these public schools SGB’s use their powers and funds to appoint additional teachers to offer a high quality education at an affordable cost. Such schools are known as former model-C schools. Due to the high cost of registered private schools, these schools are the only affordable option available to many middle class parents to get a high quality education for their children.\n\nOn the other side, public schools in general do not have sufficient capacity to accommodate all learners. In the metropolitan areas of Gauteng and the Western Cape the education MEC’s are under pressure to find space for the growing number of learners. The no fee schools are filled to capacity and provincial education departments do not have powers to place learners in schools where the SGB’s use their power to limit class sizes and charge school fees. Reducing the powers of SGB’s is therefore required to force these schools to accommodate more learners. However, if these schools accommodate more learners, class sizes will increase and the quality of education provided will deteriorate. It is therefore not surprising that there was an unprecedented reaction to the BELA Bill.\n\nIf the former model-C schools deteriorate, the only remaining alternatives to middle class parents would be home education and cottage schools. However the BELA Bill will significantly raise the cost of home education and make cottage schools illegal. This means that the only affordable form of education will be home education without registration and unregistered cottage schools, which are referred to as outlaw education. The growth of outlaw education has been a trend since 1994 and is described in an article by Leendert van Oostrum published in an international magazine with the title : *“South Africa’s outlaw educators”* http://www.othereducation.org/index.php/OE/article/view/88. The implementation of the BELA Bill in its current form will cause increased growth of an education-Toll highway where nobody registers and nobody pays toll fees.\n\nThis bill presents MEC’s such as Lesufi with a dilemma. Reducing the power of SGB’s will create more space in public schools, but takes away affordable quality education from the middle class and drives learners into outlaw education. Leaving SGB’s intact will not alleviate the growing problem of tens of thousands of learners that cannot be placed.\n\nSince BELA Bill was published, the education sector is at a cross road, and the state has to choose the road forward. There are three roads to choose:\n\n1. **Road to nowhere** : Keep the SA Schools Act as it is. This will cause that former model-C schools will continue to provide an affordable form of quality education and outlaw education continues to grow at current levels. Pressure to place learners in public schools increases.\n\n2. **eduToll road** : Implement the BELA Bill in its current form. This will cause former model-C schools to collapse due to overloading, and many learners from these schools move to outlaw education. Outlaw education will grow faster. Pressure to place learners in public schools will reduce a little bit, but politicians can at least claim that they have used their power to alleviate the problem.\n\n3. **Lekgotla road** : This option is to only implement the SGB part of BELA Bill and declare an amnesty on outlaw education. After this, engage in real public participation, and not fake public participation as was the norm the last decades. It will have the same effect as B., but it creates a safe environment where outlaw education can grow and create formal structures. The state can then engage with these formal structures and work with them to create an acceptable regulatory framework for all, so that they can become part of inlaw education. Pressure to place learners in public schools will reduce, and the middle class will have an inlaw place to move their children.\n\nIt is hoped that MEC’s will make decisions that will not only serve the interests of the state, but also those of citizens.\n\n![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWkcV3JuE8x61kWhxNCoZPdcrGcRgcdMo3RSvE6Ei1BCn/image.png)",
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      "body": "In 2017 the education sector reached a crossroad that will determine the future of education for the next decades. At the start of the school year tens of thousands of learners in Gauteng and Western Cape could not be placed in public schools. In the last quarter the state proposed new legislation to reduce the powers of School Governing Bodies (SGB’s) of public schools and to bring mainly unregulated homeschooling under state control.\n\nPublic schools are largely managed by SGB’s elected by parents. The SGB’s have powers to determine the admission policy, appoint teachers and charge school fees. In some public schools, SGB’s appoint additional teachers at the cost of parents. In these public schools SGB’s use their powers and funds to appoint additional teachers to offer a high quality education at an affordable cost. Such schools are known as former model-C schools. Due to the high cost of registered private schools, these schools are the only affordable option available to many middle class parents to get a high quality education for their children.\n\nOn the other side, public schools in general do not have sufficient capacity to accommodate all learners. In the metropolitan areas of Gauteng and the Western Cape the education MEC’s are under pressure to find space for the growing number of learners. The no fee schools are filled to capacity and provincial education departments do not have powers to place learners in schools where the SGB’s use their power to limit class sizes and charge school fees. Reducing the powers of SGB’s is therefore required to force these schools to accommodate more learners. However, if these schools accommodate more learners, class sizes will increase and the quality of education provided will deteriorate. It is therefore not surprising that there was an unprecedented reaction to the BELA Bill.\n\nIf the former model-C schools deteriorate, the only remaining alternatives to middle class parents would be home education and cottage schools. However the BELA Bill will significantly raise the cost of home education and make cottage schools illegal. This means that the only affordable form of education will be home education without registration and unregistered cottage schools, which are referred to as outlaw education. The growth of outlaw education has been a trend since 1994 and is described in an article by Leendert van Oostrum published in an international magazine with the title : *“South Africa’s outlaw educators”* http://www.othereducation.org/index.php/OE/article/view/88. The implementation of the BELA Bill in its current form will cause increased growth of an education-Toll highway where nobody registers and nobody pays toll fees.\n\nThis bill presents MEC’s such as Lesufi with a dilemma. Reducing the power of SGB’s will create more space in public schools, but takes away affordable quality education from the middle class and drives learners into outlaw education. Leaving SGB’s intact will not alleviate the growing problem of tens of thousands of learners that cannot be placed.\n\nSince BELA Bill was published, the education sector is at a cross road, and the state has to choose the road forward. There are three roads to choose:\n\n1. **Road to nowhere** : Keep the SA Schools Act as it is. This will cause that former model-C schools will continue to provide an affordable form of quality education and outlaw education continues to grow at current levels. Pressure to place learners in public schools increases.\n\n2. **eduToll road** : Implement the BELA Bill in its current form. This will cause former model-C schools to collapse due to overloading, and many learners from these schools move to outlaw education. Outlaw education will grow faster. Pressure to place learners in public schools will reduce a little bit, but politicians can at least claim that they have used their power to alleviate the problem.\n\n3. **Lekgotla road** : This option is to only implement the SGB part of BELA Bill and declare an amnesty on outlaw education. After this, engage in real public participation, and not fake public participation as was the norm the last decades. It will have the same effect as B., but it creates a safe environment where outlaw education can grow and create formal structures. The state can then engage with these formal structures and work with them to create an acceptable regulatory framework for all, so that they can become part of inlaw education. Pressure to place learners in public schools will reduce, and the middle class will have an inlaw place to move their children.\n\nIt is hoped that MEC’s will make decisions that will not only serve the interests of the state, but also those of citizens.\n\n![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWkcV3JuE8x61kWhxNCoZPdcrGcRgcdMo3RSvE6Ei1BCn/image.png)",
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      "body": "Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:\nhttps://www.sahomeschoolers.org/entry/the-week-a-tsunami-crushed-into-the-dbe.html",
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      "body": "By the weekend of the 10th of November the Department of Basic Education (DBE) was scrambling to deal with a tsunami of public comment on the draft Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill. By early Friday afternoon over 6000 comments were received and more were flooding in every minute.\n\nThis wasn’t the nightmare the DBE expected when they quietly released the BELA Bill for comment on the 13th of October. But Homeschoolers, who had not been consulted till then, were not caught off-guard. The Pestalozzi Trust organized a response with the help of legal consultants, a facebook group and a campaign team. This effort mobilized the homeschooling movement and by the final count on Friday afternoon homeschoolers, who constitute less than 1% of the school going population, had submitted about a fifth of the comments. It is suspected that many of the 5000 non-homeschooling responses do not have the legal weight and depth of the comments that homeschoolers made.\n\nThis BELA Bill proposes to promote the best interests of children by using the threat of a 6 year prison sentence to force homeschooling families to use the national curriculum (also known as CAPS) and to be monitored by the state at the cost of the parents.\n\nGiven that the constitution requires that a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child, the bill raises a number of questions:\n\n1. The national curriculum was introduced in 2003. Given that the South African education system still ranks among the lowest in the world, 14 years later, can we be certain that the national curriculum promotes the best interests of children?\n\n2. Given that there is no evidence that home learners that follow the national curriculum are educated significantly better than those that do not, can we be certain that making the national curriculum compulsory promotes the best interests of children?\n\n3. If the national curriculum is in the best interest of children, one would expect that homeschooling parents would embrace it with passion. Why is it necessary to coerce parents by means of a prison sentence to embrace it?\n\nIt is therefore doubtful that the national curriculum is so superior to other educational approaches that it justifies the destruction of families by jailing parents for 6 years and force children to follow the national curriculum at a public school while in foster care.\n\nIf there is no reason to believe that this bill is in the best interest of children, then the purpose of the bill must be to serve the interests of others.\n\n**Who might be the beneficiaries?**\n\n1. __CAPS aligned curriculum providers__ are the first beneficiaries, because the BELA Bill effectively outlaws their competition. Some providers have already used the publication of the BELA Bill as an opportunity to discredit alternative educational approaches and encourage parents to switch to their curriculum. One provider for instance makes the following statement on their website: \"*If you do not use a formal curriculum provider such as xxx, then it may be a good time to start now.*\"\n\n2. Requiring home learners to be assessed by \"*competent assessors*\" (a term referring to teachers registered with SAQA), at the cost of parents, will create hundreds of jobs for __teachers__ who cannot be accommodated in public schools, or who are not willing to work in public schools.\n\n3. The third beneficiary is the __Department of Education__ that will establish a new bureaucracy with many officials to process hundreds of thousands of assessments at taxpayer expense. Assessment results can then be used to put pressure on parents to put their children back into public schools.\n\nIt is obvious that the bill was designed to infringe on the rights of children and parents in order to serve the commercial interests of others. It is therefore not surprising that this bill was met with fierce reaction from homeschooling families. Despite the unreasonable tight deadline, the Pestalozzi Trust, homeschool associations and at least a 1000 homeschooling families submitted comments by the 10th of November. People making submissions range from a 7 year old child (above picture is from the handwritten letter of this child) to a person who was home educated in the years 1947 to 1953, before it was outlawed by the apartheid government. More than 2700 responses were received to a survey designed to estimate the effect of the bill on homeschooling families. Prayer groups were organized and the unprecedented reaction shows that these prayers were answered beyond expectations.\n\nThe publication of the BELA Bill created a highly motivated, well-informed and unified movement. The families who wrote letters to the DBE studied the bill together with the constitution, international law and many other documents and wrote their own submissions.\n\nIt is hoped that the department will apply their minds to the more than a thousand letters, consider the comments with an open mind and rewrite the bill in the best interests of the children, and not in the commercial interests of CAPS providers, teachers and departmental employees.\n\nhttps://www.sahomeschoolers.org/images/easyblog_articles/317/b2ap3_large_BELABrief3.jpg",
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      "author": "bluabaleno",
      "body": "@@ -142,16 +142,66 @@\n oach? %0A%0A\n+Traditional in the context of the United States. %0A\n I'm maki\n",
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      "body": "What do you think it is the reason for that? In other words, why do you think parents choose the classical approach over the traditional approach? \n\nI'm making the assumption that you live in the United States(22% of Steemit users are).",
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      "author": "sahomeschoolers",
      "body": "Many homeschooling families choose the classical approach which is related to what you have described. Education is divided in the grammar, logical and rethorical phases.",
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