On 6 August 2026 the Department of Basic Education (DBE) had a meeting with home education parents. Invitations were sent to parents who registered their children for home education by the provincial departments.

Cape Home Educators (CHE) inquired among its members whether they received the invite, and a number of parents indicated that their children were registered, but they did not receive an invite. This suggests that the provincial databases, or the process used to distribute invitations, may not be fully up to date. Despite this, the meeting was well attended. At the peak more than 650 people were in the meeting.

Opening

The meeting was opened by Mr. Ngcobo, director of Inclusive Education. A number of officials from the DBE, Free State Province, Gauteng Province and Limpopo were introduced. He explained that the purpose of the meeting was to engage with and support parents and share good practices.

He explained that home education is an option that should be available to all and that there should be no conditions attached to choosing that option. He then proceeded to go through a presentation that explained the new provisions in the BELA Act. He also mentioned that there seems to be a lack of competent assessors and that regulations are in the process of being drafted.

Questions

After the presentation there was opportunity for questions. The question session was facilitated by Ms. Brown of the DBE. Common themes in the questions were the following:

• The use of curricula from other countries.
• Phase End Assessments and the assessment of non CAPS curricula.
• Children with special needs and accommodation.
• Support groups.
• Returning to school.

Assistive Devices and Apps

Ms. Chaane from the DBE did a presentation on Assistive devices and Apps. that are used for children with special needs. The DBE felt it was necessary for home educators to be made aware of these, because education officials do not visit home learners in their homes to investigate whether learners have a need for such devices as they do in schools.

She emphasised that parents are responsible for early intervention and encouraged to explore ways to allow to facilitate accommodations incorporated into everyday learning where appropriate.

Best practices

Ms. Brown requested some parents to share best practices. One parent shared that she developed a website to enable home learners to connect and socialize. Another parent shared how she removed her child from a school and used an English curriculum that her child enjoyed.

Closing

In her closing remarks Ms. Brown mentioned that the DBE intends to continue with these meetings once or twice a year.

Analysis

The attitude of the officials in the meeting was home education is a lawful option that parents are free to choose without conditions. This is in stark contrast with the attitude of officials 20 years ago. In the early 2000’s the Minister of Education, Kader Asmal unsuccessfully attempted to publicly arrest an unregistered home educator to make an example of her. In subsequent meetings in Gauteng, officials threatened home educators with criminal prosecution. Reports on this can be read at https://www.sahomeschoolers.org/about-us/media/reports-by-association-for-homeschooling.html

This meeting illustrates a degree of divergence within government. While legislators attempt to regulate home education more strictly through legislation such as the BELA Act, some senior officials in the executive branch are becoming more lenient. The change of the executive branch could be attributed to consistent pressure caused by decades of activism by various homeschool organizations. Another reason could be that education officials experience daily pressure from parents unable to get their children placed in a school. Legislators operate under different incentives from officials responsible for implementing policy. Home education remains a relatively small constituency and may therefore receive less political attention than issues affecting larger groups of voters. Although the estimated number of home learners already exceeds the number of learners in an entire province such as the Northern Cape, it is too distributed to have an effect on voting patterns.

Another notable feature of the meeting was its practical focus. Rather than concentrating on enforcement or compliance, most of the discussion centered on helping parents address practical challenges such as curriculum choices, assessments, special educational needs, support groups and access to assistive technologies. This practical orientation reinforced the impression that the officials viewed themselves primarily as supporting rather than policing home education.