“I have frequently heard that homeschooled children have been refused when they want to go back to school because they were never registered with the Department of Education. Is this true and how should one handle this if your child has never been registered and something happens and you need to put the child back in a state school? What is the procedure and how legal is it for them to refuse a child?” ~ Heleen
Answer to School Admissions Tests
“Art 5 of the SA Schools Act (Act 84 of 1995) states:
1) A public school must admit learners and serve their educational requirements without unfairly discriminating in any way.
2) The governing body of a public school may not administer any test related to the admission of a learner to a public school, or direct or authorise the principal of the school or any other person to administer such test.
That means a public school that is not already full, breaks the law if it refuses to admit a home learner.
Furthermore, the school may not set any test relating to such admission* and may not demand the results of such a test performed by anyone else.
When you look at the national policy on the admission of learners to public schools, they must be admitted according to the age-grade norm. In other words: the figure six is subtracted from the age that the child reaches during the current academic year, and that is the grade that the learner MUST be placed in.
“Of course, most principals of public schools do not know this law and do not apply it when they do. Accordingly, a substantial part of the work of the Pestalozzi Trust comprises polite telephone calls to headmasters, pointing them towards the applicable law in the most polite and congenial manner.”
~ Leendert van Oostrum, Pestalozzi Trust, published on tuisonderwys@yahoogroups.com on 22/01/2013
Update 1 June 2020
According to the Pestalozzi Trust, “the school has a right to conduct a placement assessment with the purpose to place the child in the appropriate grade, if there is reason to doubt that the proof of learning submitted to the school is sufficient. Schools may however not conduct any form of admission test i.e. a school cannot refuse to enroll a learner on the basis of a test.” [emphasis added]
Also read Registering for Homeschooling and Registering with the Department