An analysis of the performance of the South African school system against the back ground of the right to education sec 29(i)

Abstract

The continued poor performance of the South African schooling system has an effect in realizing the right to education as enshrined in the Constitution. In Juma Musjid Primary School and others v Essay NO and others 1the Constitutional Court found that government has a duty to provide basic education in terms of its obligations under section 29(1)(a).This means that unlike further education, which the government need only make progressively available through reasonable measures , the right to basic education is incontrovertible and cannot be neglected on grounds of, say, a lack of funding or other resources however this right is effectively being denied by the poor quality of education. The reason for this may be attributable to systemic challenges in the education sector as a whole, which may be causing poor performance as witnessed in the South African schooling system. The dawn of apartheid brought about many policy changes within the South African education system in order to address educational inequalities by deracialisation and compulsory schooling for all population groups.However, the South African schooling system is still characterised by unevenness and inequalities. In cases such as Basic Education for All and others v Minister of Basic Education and others2 the court found that the right to basic education is not progressively realised, and does affect performance of the schooling system.