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Through the course of this week, I will be taking a look at some factors parents need to consider when determining which school is the right fit for their child. Part One deals with the legalities of schools, and whether they are registered with the Department of Education. Fortunately, if you are looking at public schools in your area, or the larger and more established independent schools, this is not an area that you need to worry about. However, in the past few years we have seen an explosion in the βcottage schoolβ market in South Africa and the sad reality is that the vast majority of these schools do not meet the legal requirements to be considered a school.
If you are interested in an independent school for your child, the first question you should ask is: π¨ππ πππ ππππππππππ ππππ πππ π«πππππππππ ππ π¬π πππππππ?
In South Africa, homeschooling is defined quite clearly as being education happening within the home environment, with either a parent or tutor overseeing the education programme. Families wishing to homeschool, register as βhome-schoolersβ with their provincial education department and provide proof of progress at certain stages of the childβs schooling. Unfortunately, some of these so-called βcottage schoolsβ use this as a loophole and register all their children as βhome-schoolersβ as a way to get around having the school formally registered as a school.
If that is the case, does it actually matter that they are not registered? In legal terms, yes it does. In order to be registered as a school, organisations have to adhere to certain guidelines and regulations. These regulations are in place not only to ensure that the academic standard is adequate, but also that the school is a safe environment in which your child can learn alongside other children. By choosing an unregistered school, there is little recourse should something go wrong at the school β and if an organisation is willing to operate without proper registration, one has to wonder what else they have taken a shortcut on that may compromise your childβs learning and safety.
Aside from safety concerns, if an organisation is not registered properly, they may not issue school reports and they are also not bound by any regulations ensuring their teachers are qualified and/or SACE registered. Some of these cottage schools do make use of outside curriculum providers, such as IMPAQ, and it is these curriculum providers that issue reports. They are legally allowed to do so, as the curriculum provider is registered by the Department of Education. While this is somewhat better than a βschoolβ that does not make use of a curriculum provider, the organisation is not allowed to refer to itself as a school in any way and it is not allowed to resemble a school e.g. the children may not wear school uniforms, there should be no school bell etc. Regardless of these regulations, there are many cottage schools that openly flout these rules and continue to promote themselves as a βschoolβ. Quite often, they promote themselves as schools for children who do not fit into the ordinary education system and as such, they become quite attractive for families of children with learning disabilities and/or other barriers to learning including conduct disorders. It is only much later on when the parents are trying to apply for the child to re-enter a mainstream school or it comes to the point where they are trying to register to write Matric exams that the issue comes to light, at which stage it is often too late for the child to resume ordinary education. At this stage, there seems to be very little legal recourse against organisations operating in this fashion and so they continue to illegally offer their services as a βschoolβ.
There is an exception to this, however, which I fully support and these are learning centres. In the past few years, we have seen the development of βlearning centresβ that cater for children who do find learning in ordinary schools challenging. These learning centres typically cater for older children and they require every learner to be registered with an online school or external provider. The difference between these learning centres and a cottage school is that they do not promote themselves as a school, and parents know exactly what services they are paying for. Although these children are not learning at home in the traditional home-schooling sense, they are still learning in the way that a home-schooler would but with the benefit of additional support through the use of tutors and limited social interactions. The children are not being taught in the traditional sense β they are studying the curriculum at their own pace under the guidance of a tutor. The numbers in these learning centres are typically very limited and, in my experience, they tend to be overseen by passionate educators who are fully qualified. These learning centres do not typically take place in a house, or if they do, it is a house that has been transformed into βofficesβ for learning as opposed to rooms being made into classrooms.
In summary, the following would be red flags for me if you are looking at an organisation that may refer to itself as a school, but is functioning outside of education law:
1. They require you to register your child for home-schooling.
2. Learning is taking place in an environment not meant for education (e.g. someoneβs house) and rooms are made to look like classrooms.
3. There is no clear curriculum being used to guide learning.
4. The βschoolβ is not affiliated to an independent body, such as ISASA.
Should you have any concerns regarding a school you are interested in for your child, please do your research prior to enrolling your child. If you are battling with this decision, you are welcome to contact me on help@soseducation.co.za to book an appointment to chat about your childβs educational journey.
