Promoting learners’ right to freedom of religious expression in public schools

Abstract

The dispute over the place, accommodation and tolerance of religion and religious expression in South African public schools, as well as globally, has been vehement. This is, to some extent, because public schools reflect the multicultural and religious societies in which they are found. In addition to their diverse backgrounds, public schools in South Africa and elsewhere are dominated by Christianity, with most people claiming allegiance to it and, sometimes, discriminating against the other minority religions. This has led to governments developing a plethora of legislation, policies and regulations to redress the dominance, unequal treatment and discrimination of the dominant religion. This study was undertaken to answer the question: “How do public schools promote the learners’ right to freedom of religious expression?” This interpretive multisite case study explored the experiences of the SGB chairpersons, principals, Life Orientation educators and learners at three public secondary schools in the Bohlabela District of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The research used interviews, document analysis and observations to elicit the participants’ views and understandings of how their various schools’ religious observance policies promoted the learners’ right to freedom of religious expression. The findings revealed that most schools have not changed the way they conduct religious observances since the promulgation of the National Policy on Religion and Education of 2003. Moreover, learners still experience religious intolerance and religious discrimination because schools promote single-faith religious observances.