Cape Home Educators

SACSSA Regional Athletics Day – Cape Town

Registration for SACSSA’s regional athletics day in Cape Town is open!
A new event on the program is 100m relay for ages 12 and up. We need 4 athletes per age group to be able to enter a team. If we do not have sufficient entries in an age group we will unfortunately not be able to enter a team for that age group.
Dates: 10 February 2024
Venue: Curro Durbanville High School
Time: 08h00 – 16h30
Costs: R200 per athlete (R210 for entries after 30 January, no entry after 1 February)
Entries close: 1 February 2024
Dress code: Plain white T-shirt with dark blue or black shorts. CHE will provide a CHE sticker for your t-shirt.
List of events per age group are available at https://www.capehomeed.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ATHLETICS-EVENTS-LIST-2024-CT.pdf
Program: SACSSA-regionals-Durbanville-program
– if you’d like to volunteer as an official please let me know
Children born in 2005-2018 may enter.
Please complete the online registration at https://forms.gle/h339sY5NsyeKNRa56
You need to send proof of payment to athletics.che@gmail.com within 24 hours to complete your registration.

EFT payments can be made to:

• Bank: ABSA
• Account name: Cape Home Educators
• Account number: 4089098115
• Type of account: Cheque account
• Branch code: 632005
• Reference: your email address
Entries close: 1 February 2024. Proof of payment needs to reach us no later than 2 February 2024.
No late entries will be accepted!!!!
General info:
1. Please ensure that you are at the venue 30 minutes before your child’s first event as you need to get the CHE sticker and the children need to be lined-up before being taken onto the field.
2. The CHE will have an area to all sit together. Look out for our CHE gazebos
3. Athletes only compete once (no finals are run at the regional meet)
4. The top 6 athletes from each event progress to the Provincial Meet (on 9 March 2024 at Curro Durbanvill High School). You need to enter and pay for this separately. We will send out results once it is available.
5. No medals are awarded at the Regional Meet as this is only a qualifier for the Provincial meet.
Dress code and stickers
– White shirt with dark blue or black shorts
– CHE sticker on left of chest (please collect your sticker at the CHE gazebos)
– Event stickers. Please note you need to provide your own event stickers. A separate sticker is needed for each event as the officials take these at the end of the event to determine placings.
Parents please ensure that athletes have their stickers on when they report for their events. Book name label stickers work well.

Please remember to bring a sticker/label for each event your child(ren) will be taking part in. If you forget we will be selling stickers/labels at R5 each.
Please note the stickers for each child also needs to show their school (in our case Cape Home Educators). Example:
John Doe 10 years
Cape Home Educators
Long jump
Age is their age on 31 December 2024 eg for children born in 2014 it will be 10. If the student is 9 turning 10 this year, he/she is 10 years old! AGE GROUP 16 AND 17 ARE ENTERED AS 17 (Youth). AGE GROUP 18 AND 19 ARE ENTERED AS 19 (Junior).
Officials
We need to provide an official for every 6 athletes entered. We have added a R50 officials fee to the entry fee to rent officials. Please help us by volunteering as an official (you will then be paid for the day’s work).
Officials please wear a white shirt and white/navy/black pants.
By Lizelle R, ago

Feedback on parliamentary deliberations

Dear fellow Home educators

We are receiving so many questions and comments after yesterday’s parliamentary deliberations.

Uncertainty of what the process going forward entails and some just seeking assurance, being
overwhelmed by fear.

What happens next?

  1. The clauses will be rewritten to incorporate the changes decided upon. When this is finalised, the document (A-list) will be sent to the PCBE.
  2. The PCBE will meet to vote on the A-list on 1 September.
  3. Thereafter it will proceed to the National Council and from there to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
  4. The public has another chance to participate (details to follow but it will either be by public hearings or by written submissions).
  5. If approved, it is sent to the president to sign.

    On public participation:
    Cape Home Educators wrote to the Secretariat of the PCBE asking permission that participants be allowed to add written comments to our oral submissions at the public hearings, because 3 minutes was insufficient to deal with the complexities of the bill. We were refused on the grounds that participants all ready had the chance to make written submissions.

    If those written submissions, 9 501 emails, have not been processed/included into the report, how can this process be deemed to be giving justice to the constitutional requirement of public participation? Then parliament is not facilitating public participation by considering EVERY submission.

    We are awaiting the outcome regarding the unprocessed 9 501written submissions that had to be taken into account before the PCBE should have started their deliberations.

    Clause 37 accepted as is:
    Although it was decided to accept clause 37 “as is”, it will be reworded/rephrased to give clarity on certain details. It was decided that:
  • the independent assessor can be any professionally accredited person appointed by the parent, including an educational psychologist.
  • We have Mr. Ndlebe on record admitting that the DBE doesn’t know how to assess home educators.
  • Home visits don’t have to be at home, it can be in a public place and will only be performed in exceptional circumstances.
  • We have Mr. Ndlebe on record that the DBE don’t have the capacity to visit each home.
  • In the definitions, the definition of Basic education will be changed to include freedom of curriculum choice.
  • After each phase it must be demonstrated that learning took place in accordance with the curriculum followed. The curriculum must not be at a lower standard than CAPS.

    Thank you to each home educator warrior who are still fighting with us. Don’t loose faith or hope!

    I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Mrs.Sukers from the ACDP, Mr. Nodada and Ms. Van Zyl from the DA and to Dr. Boshof from the Freedom Front+ for their ferocity in representing our concerns amidst very hostile deliberations.

    Should we be fearful?
    I’m reminded of the story of David and Goliath, in 1 Samuel 17. The similarities are evident.

    The armies of Saul was defeated by fear, but David was indignant that Goliath dared to mock God. Be like David.

    Go rest, be replenished in prayer, and then clothed with the armour of God, lets go forth bravely to honour God and defeat this giant.

    Marietjie Ueckermann
    Chairperson
    Cape Home Educators
    18 August 2023
By Lizelle R, ago

A call for unity

Dear fellow Home Educators,

I am writing to you hoping to provide clarity on the new developments with the Department of Basic Education (DBE).

Background
At the DBE Home Education Roundtable discussions, held in February 2020, it was decided that work groups had to be formed to continue engagement with all stakeholders for the continuation of the Roundtable process.

To achieve this, the Pestalozzi Trust invited relevant stakeholders in the home education movement (including prominent associations, organizations, curriculum service providers, independent advisors, as well as Facebook administrators) to a Home Education CODESA. This name was chosen, because the CODESA on which the South African constitution is based, was a meeting in which groups from very diverse backgrounds came together and found consensus on a new constitution.

The format of the CODESA was a series of online meetings during which stakeholders had discussions with the purpose of finding an unified position.

Cape Home Educators (CHE), and many other prominent associations, organizations and individuals in the home education movement participated in these meetings to form the Liberty in Learning Coalition (LIL).

Partnering with LIL
The Cape Home Educators constitution clearly states our objectives:
ARTICLE 2: OBJECTIVES
2.1 The Association shall endeavour to obtain the recognition of society and the protection of the law for the obligation and concomitant right of the parents to be able to educate their children themselves.
2.2 The Association recognizes that the State has a constitutional obligation towards the child to provide education, in cases where the parents are unable or unwilling to educate their children themselves.
2.3 The Association shall recognize that the parents have the right to delegate the task of education to persons of their own choice.
2.4 The Association shall, insofar it is able to,
2.4.1 Provide advice, guidance, assistance and support to existing and potential Home Schooling groups and/or families;
2.4.2 Investigate and research Home Schooling developments both nationally and internationally.

As our objectives are in complete alliance with the goals of the LIL coalition, stated here:
To (a) honor the responsibility of parents to serve the best interest of their children by promoting the freedom to tailor education to each child, and to (b) ensure that any laws governing education serve the best interest of the child and respect the role of family, community, and culture in education.

CHE have chosen to partner with the LIL Coalition to unite Home Educators in that common goal. Members of the LIL coalition agree to support and uphold their goals, as well as the integrity of each individual and organization associated with Liberty in Learning.

Furthermore, the coalition serves as a place for various home education associations to meet and debate differences, in order to act as a united front in defending the above-mentioned goal.

Renewed discussions on the Implementation of the Home education Policy
The LIL Coalition sent an email to the DBE to introduce the LIL Coalition, on 29 May 2020. This initiative opened the floor to renewed discussions between the DBE and LIL Coalition. These proceedings led to the DBE inviting LIL Coalition, home educators and other individuals to the formal online meeting that was held on Monday, 17 August 2020. Cape Home Educators representation consisted of myself, Tess Simmonds and Nicky Wesson. The Department asked that home educators should join their provincial associations to ensure that they are represented. Furthermore, they gave us one week to do so, expecting a complete list to be submitted containing provincial organization and task team representatives.

CHE has been in existence since 1996. We have engaged with the DBE for many years. We were at the forefront during the 2015 consultative meetings regarding the formulation of a new policy for home education in South Africa.

Representatives from all the home education associations and the Pestalozzi Trust reached a consensus on principles on which revised law and policy on home education can be based. Leendert van Oostrum defined six principles that described how home education could be regulated without infringing on the rights of children and parents. These principles were handed to the DBE at the end of the meeting in 2015.

We remained engaged, writing many letters, attending meetings, advocating home educational freedom.

The Policy was already signed by the Minister in 2018. The BELA Bill has not yet been promulgated. The current engagements is for so called “implementation” of that policy. However, the policy will need to change because it is based on the BELA Bill.

CHE invites you to join us, as we go forward to engage with the DBE

Though we can’t change the Policy now, our comments may influence it’s enabling legislation, the BELA Bill, and then as a result of that, the Policy might also have to change.

We hope a new, changed policy will come from this current engagement. Enabling Home Education, that will truly allow us to honour the responsibility of parents to serve the best interest of their children by promoting the freedom to tailor education to each child. To ensure that any laws governing education serve the best interest of the child and respect the role of family, community, and culture in education.

I call on you to stand united, not guided by fear and mistrust. To be informed of the right to home educate. This is not the time to allow divisive elements to drive our actions. We all need to responsibly consider the consequences of the decisions we make now.

This is our chance to preserve home educational freedom for generations to come.

You are welcome to contact me.

Marietjie Ueckermann
Chairman
Cape Home Educators
Please support Liberty in Learning Coalition.
Page: https://www.facebook.com/Liberty-in-Learning-103589121468160/
Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/libertyinlearning/

This document is also available for downloaded here

By Lizelle R, ago