The article by Sarah Motha is based on the ongoing collaborative participatory research between Khanya College and Wits-EPU on Migrants Rights to Access Basic Education.
In 2004, a community newspaper reported on an estimated number of 60 000 migrant learners in Gauteng Province from other provinces and neighbouring countries of South Africa.
Some researchers and community organisations working on issues of migration and displacement of communities refer to the different categories of population that have migrated to the inner city since 1994 inclusively as migrants. These include rural-urban migrants, documented migrants, undocumented migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (also known as forced migrants) and those who have migrated to the city for other reasons. In this article, these terms will be used interchangeably to refer to these different communities found in the inner city of Johannesburg.
At the beginning of the 2005 schooling calendar, opportunities for some migrant learners to attend school were uncertain. However within the domestic legal framework the rights of every child to access basic education is stated in the South African constitution, the Refugee Act and a number of other pieces of legislation. The country has also signed and ratified international legal instruments that protect all children including displaced children.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an implementing partner for the UNHCR based in Johannesburg, provides support for forced migrant’s children in school fees and uniform to a certain extent. According to Theo Gene Nshimanyana, the Education Desk of the
Coordinating Body for Refugee Committee, the JRS model of funding does not cover all the school fees costs for migrant learners but only 30% for all refugee children of school going age. This situation also depends on the availability of funding from donor organisations.
“Arrears are another problem leading to exclusion, as inner-city parents are unemployed and poor”, continues Nshimanyana, “We have observed that even to South African children education is
not free as well.” Chapter Nine institutions have a mandate of protecting and promoting human rights such as the South African Human Rights Commission and others such as Black Sash, Centre for Child Law and Lawyers for Human Rights have been helpful in intervening around litigation. These cases are related to access to basic education andunaccompanied minors facing deportation, who under the South African legislation are protected by the Child Care Act and the Refugee Act of 1998.
Initially inner-city schools were keen on admitting migrant learners after an awareness workshop was conducted in 2003. However with an increase in the migrants population; more and more schools are becoming reluctant. Currently some principals, do not want to deal with the problem of the inability to pay school fees by migrant parents as they do not even inform parents about the exemption policy. In addition, some schools argue that migrant parents should show a sense of commitment to the education of their children by at least paying just a little amount.
According to schools, the fees exemption policy currently works against the budget and funding needs of schools in the inner city. The Department of Education (DoE) insists that schools must admit the learners. Meanwhile such a statement conflicts the output of the DoE in terms of funding and provision of additional infrastructure to schools. In this regard, schools resist admitting migrant learners based on shortage of funding and infrastructure. Schools argue that the DoE should provide for these resources. Former TED (white) schools, which are well resourced and beyond the school fees charges and which receive additional funding from rich parents and private donors have at times benefited migrant learners. However these schools are located outside the inner city and transport costs become a hinderance for migrant parents. The inner city schools are overcrowded and full and Grade 1 learners often have problems due to shortage of classrooms.
Quite often parents in the township prefer sending their children to the city schools, as they are better equipped. They argue that performance is low in the township schools due to poor resources. Meanwhile refugee parents prefer not to send their children to the township because xenophobia are rife there. Also, transport costs are a hinderance and they are far from support service organisations such as Lawyers for Human Rights and JRS.
Proficiency in the English language appears to be a pre-requisite in the set of the schools admissions criteria in some inner-city schools. Some migrant learners have been denied admission based on this criterion. The School Education Act says that language competence testing shall not be used as an admission requirement to a public school.
Forced migrants strongly feel that Afrikaans as a language is not relevant to them either as a language of business or interaction with locals in Johannesburg. Learning the Afrikaans language is understood to be of no use as the intention is to return to home countries once socio-economic and political conditions there have stabilised.
For example, lack of Portuguese is currently a problem for Angolan children who are eager to get home after the end of a 27-year civil war. There are fears that not understanding Portuguese will prove a real obstacle when it comes to community re-integration in areas such as education or employment opportunities.
In private schools, proficiency in English as a requirement is not applicable and therefore they become an alternative to migrant parents, as long as parents can afford to pay the fees. Migrant parents and learners are also not aware of the national language policy that exempts foreign nationals from taking two languages if they have been in the country for less than five years.
Due to prolonged unrests and civil conflicts, forced migrants spend a lot of time wandering and looking for places of safety. They spend a lot of time in their journeys such as the Congolese woman who spent six months walking from the Democratic Republic of Congo to South Africa. These prolonged journeys, impact directly on the compulsory age or years for basic education of 15 years of age or nine years of schooling according to SASA. Reports say that schools are not giving reference to Public Adult Learning Centre classes when a migrant learner is above the age norm as according to the Admission Policy for Ordinary Public Schools. Neither are there fast track facilities available for those learners above the age norm for a grade. Notice 4138 of
2001 on Admission of Learners to Public Schools instructs Heads of Departments to coordinate fast- track programmes. This should be an accelerated programme designed for learners who are 3 years or more above the normal grade age, to catch up with their peers. Therefore, these learners are excluded of the schooling system and left to wander the streets of Johannesburg.
Sarah Motha works for the Education Rights Project.
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