Volume: Volume 7(1) - 2003

Article type: Refereed article

Author/s: Seleoane, Mandla

The author argues that the right to education is more strongly formulated in the Bill of Rights than the right to housing, which was at issue in the Grootboom case, so that policy implications for the right to education cannot be derived mechanically from the Grootboom judgment. Examining government policy documents on education, he concludes that the policies do not always take account of the way that different aspects of the right to education are formulated in the Bill of Rights.

He also finds that existing policies do not fully satisfy the standard set out in Grootboom. The author highlights the fact that South Africa has ratified international instruments that require the provision of free basic/primary education. Noting various problems with the Department of Education's school fees policy, he concludes that there is liltle justification for departing from the internationally accepted standard of free primary education.

Click to view and download article