The efficacy of “catch-up programmes” in South African high schools: a legal jinx
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Date
2013
Authors
Nyoni, Jabulani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
The South African State is mandated by Sections 28(2) and 29(1) of the South African
Constitution to make provision for the education of a South African child in fulfilment
of the child’s constitutional rights. Teacher Unions (TUs) and provincial Departments
of Basic Education (DBEs) have often promised South African high school student
body, in particular, and society at large, in general, that the compensation of time
lost during a teachers’ strike is duly accounted for during the implementation of
subsequent compensatory intervention strategy (CIS) “catch-up programmes”. The
article argues that, as long as CIS “catch-up programmes” remain voluntary for both
educators and learners, without the backing of enforceable mandatory legislative
instruments that would hold public schools and DBEs to account, learners will continue
losing valuable contact time, thereby jeopardising their chances of doing well in their
academic school work and being denied their constitutional right to basic education
in the process. The use of postpositivist, legal, rational, qualitative interpretive
phenomenological analysis (IPA) was meant to explore how high school principals,
teachers and students experienced CIS “catch-up programmes” implementation
processes by DBEs (Smith & Osborn, 2008).
Description
Keywords
Catch-up programme, Rule of law, Child’s best interests, Basic education
Citation
Nyoni, J. (2013). The efficacy of" catch-up programmes" in South African high schools: a legal jinx. Perspectives in Education, 31(4), 58-70.