Homeschooling in South Africa

Home schooling in South Africa (often referred to as home education) had been illegal, until it was recognized in 1996 under the South African School Legislation, since when it has since grown exponentially.

Notable moments in the history of home schooling are provided below. Most of the content comes directly from primary sources and has not been documented anywhere yet:

1868: Dr Andrew Murray was the only NG Minister in the Free State and Transvaal, and he was based in Bloemfontein. He was tasked to travel through both republics baptizing people, giving catechism and performing marriage ceremonies. Dr. Murray was surprised that he very seldom found young people that were illiterate, in reading, writing and arithmetic and this despite the fact that there were no schools in the area traveled. Nomad farmers bordering the north east of the Cape Colony in the eighteen hundreds had no schools, teachers or religious ministers, and yet literacy was a universal occurrence.

1900+: Government schools increased in implementation and the freedom of home schooling was increasingly limited.

1992: The Association for Homeschooling is established.

1993: On 14 December 1992 Andre and Bokkie Meintjies were sentenced to prison because their children did not attend formal school. In a court case that lasted for almost five years, Andre was sentenced to two years and Bokkie one year in separate jails in Johannesburg, and this while their three children were placed in an orphanage in the Eastern Cape to prevent contact between the parents and children. Several other parents were given suspended sentences on condition they put their children in schools. All of those parents still have criminal records.

1994: A group action was launched by the Association for Homeschooling and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) from the USA that led to release of both Bokkie and Andre. The Meintjies couple were however released six months later under a blanket amnesty for prisoners with the implementation of the new constitution.

1995: Concept legislation was published to the effect that home schooling was to be illegal in South Africa. This led to a campaign being launched by home school leaders like Leendert van Oostrum, Graham Shortridge and Kate Durham with the HSLDA. Thousands of home schoolers in the USA wrote letters to the South African embassy in the USA in support of this campaign.

1996: In November of this year the SA Schools Act was promulgated wherein home schooling was recognized. In December of the same year, the new constitution of South Africa was accepted, in which the legal status of home schooling was entrenched more securely.

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