FROM : Pestalozzi Trust legal defence fund for home and civil education - 4th January 2012

Analysis of results in the 2011 matric examinations shows that homeschoolershave again performed superbly.

Provisional results of the exam of the Examination Board for Christian Education (ERCO) indicate that about 500 bona fide home learners wrote the exam, and achieved a pass mark of about 93%. Of those who passed, about 63% passed with university exemption.

Leendert van Oostrum, an educational consultant specialising in home education stated that the excellent academic, social and personal development of home learners in South Africa agrees with results of home learners in other countries as demonstrated by decades of independent research.

He cautioned, however, that these candidates had to overcome numerous bureaucratic obstacles merely to be able to write the examination. Van Oostrum pointed out that the new National Senior Certificate is designed to benefit full time learners in schools and makes it almost impossible, and very expensive, for independent or distance learners to meet the bureaucratic demands associated with the new examination system.

In addition, government examination boards no longer accept independent candidates unless they fly under the guise of schools.

This means that a matric, which could be obtained for as little as one thousand Rand five years ago, now costs at least thirty thousand Rand, the number of independent candidates declining from about fifteen thousand per year to about one thousand.

The Pestalozzi Trust has instructed its lawyers to investigate and challenge (in court if necessary) the exclusion by government agencies of the very people who need access to education most – those who could not complete their matric in schools due to financial, personal and other factors.

For further information call Leendert van Oostrum at 012 330 1337