This article was written on 8 October 2024. The relevance of the contents may change within a short time frame, as aspects of the commencement date of the BELA Act become clearer in the near future.
Disclaimer – The article is not intended as legal advice. Always get legal advice for your family’s situation if you need it.
Many Parents Feel Conflicted
Many parents feel conflicted about the BELA Act and the registration requirements for home educators. Gut feelings, vagueness of the law and the current ‘climate’ are valid considerations. As fellow home educators, we at Footprints, have fought against restrictive legislation that impacts educational freedom for many years and so we understand these disturbing feelings. We offer information to help unsettled parents make well-considered, decisions so that you can focus on what’s most important to you – your family and your children.
Below is the reply to a very worried mother, who feels threatened by the BELA Act. Her email has been shortened for the sake of brevity:
First I want to say that I was so grateful for your YouTube video with Bouwe van Der Eems on the registration dilemma. I am one of those moms sitting in my house feeling like I have this huge sword over my head, so to speak.
I have homeschooled for 14 years now, my older two daughters are 21 and almost 24…My baby has just turned 13 and has never been to school.
Although I know home education works, this BELA Act has made me feel as insecure as a first time homeschooler. I really don’t want to register or rather apply for registration as I am afraid what rights I will be signing away. I have no faith in politicians and government officials. I’m not sure that I can write a motivational letter that will satisfy an official. There also seems to be a lot of pressure, even from the Pestalozzi Trust to register so I’m just feeling so unsettled at the moment.
I don’t know whether my message makes sense but you two ladies are very calming voices in this storm of dissenting voices and views at the moment.
Is the BELA Act a Sword over Your Head?
Very often when we think we are alone in our thinking and our decisions we feel most vulnerable. You are not alone.
We have seen communication from the Pestalozzi Trust encouraging parents to prepare for the possibility of registering, but also to wait for now and not submit any documents yet. They are offering assistance to those who WANT to register to navigate the questions on the application forms.
It appears that the date of commencement for the BELA Bill is not clear to the legal minds of the country, so it is unclear whether it the new law is, in fact, in force or not and if not, the date of commencement is still to be determined. How vague is that!
A number of veteran home education leaders who belong to the Liberty in Learning Coalition are also not comfortable with what seems to be a change of advice by the Pestalozzi Trust. There is not one unified view on the matter, among these experienced home educators.
The Pestalozzi Trust has confirmed that they will support all their members, regardless of their decision to register or not, as long as it is a well-thought out decision. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for all families. Some families may indeed still have good reason for what was previously described as “lawful non-compliance,” although in the current situation, it is likely to be very few, according to their legal consultant.
These are very uncertain times, and parents SHOULD feel apprehensive and cautious about handing over decisions about their children’s education to a state official. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is yet to show consistency across all provinces and to create an atmosphere of trust. What may seem “reasonable” from a legal point of view, to one person, may not seem “reasonable and justifiable” to another person, be it an official or a parent, and so there is already dissent over that on social media channels.
This is not legal advice, but it’s important to recognise that we all have our own consciences and our own “gut feel” and we need to be confident to trust our own judgment. Others may be driven by fear, or simply by the wish to obey the law and comply, but you would have to live with a sense of compromise on your own beliefs at this point, if you went against your own instincts.
In a recent online meeting, a legal consultant, Christopher Cordeiro, speaking on behalf of the Pestalozzi Trust, explained that the conditions for registration have improved immensely, since 2012, when home visits were required and other potentially invasive conditions made it unreasonable for the majority of home education parents to comply. But because home educators have succeeded in bringing these issues to the attention of the lawmakers and because there is now open communication between home education representatives and DBE officials, which there was not in the past, it is more difficult for most families to make a strong case for lawful non-compliance. Therefore, the Trust says they are assisting families to prepare applications for registration, well, not right away, but at a date in the near future, when they give the ‘say-so’ that it is time to submit application documents.
However, after all the years of fighting to protect the role of parents in choosing the education in the best interests of the child, it seems like a drastic change to now prepare for compliance with a law that the Pestalozzi Trust previously stated they intend to have struck down in the Constitutional Court. (See Pestalozzi Trust Commits R2.3 million to Fight BELA Bill) It’s almost a contradiction – especially for long-time homeschoolers with older children, who have been resisting registration for decades!
You can rest assured that there are many other home educating parents who are also not yet comfortable with the idea of registration at this point in time.
No Prosecution Promised?
It appears that the DBE officials in at least two provinces, Gauteng and the Western Cape, anticipate that some parents will be reluctant to register and they have stated that their intention is not to prosecute any parents who don’t register their children for home education within 30 days of the commencement date of the BELA Bill – a date which, as stated previously, is still under legal scrutiny.
Currently, there seems to be a very warm and friendly ‘climate’ being created by the DBE officials, but there is definitely still much uncertainty and vagueness about certain aspects of the BELA Act that pertain to home education. There is uncertainty about how the policy will be changed and applied in practice (remember policy is not law, it guides the implementation of the law) as well as how provincial application forms and the information on them will be received and approved or not.
So to repeat the opening phrase, you are not alone and you have good reason to feel unsure and apprehensive about this new law and its application, which is not yet clear. There is currently very low risk, possibly one could dare say “no risk” of prosecution in the near future for non-registration. When asked how they would handle parents who don’t register, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) spokesperson said “The WCED’s district official will be activated to get in contact with you and help you with the application.” See “You may register later,”says WCED. “WCED will accommodate all applications without prosecution.”
This suggests that non-registration is viewed as administrative negligence, which they will help you to rectify, if they could ever track you down, rather than as a criminal act of educational neglect.
Your feelings are valid, your concerns are valid and the law is vague. So ignore the hype and panic-inducing posts you might see on social media about registration and look out for important announcements and news from more trustworthy sources. If you need it or want it, get legal advice for your specific children, as each family’s circumstances and reasons for home education may differ vastly from others and there is no one-size-fits-all answer for every scenario.
Always, empower yourself to make informed decisions, which you are convinced are in the best interests of your child and then be prepared to defend them if necessary.
You don’t have to follow the crowd, as long as you know why you are choosing a different path. And you may change your mind in the future.
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” ~ Steve Jobs