At this moment, the biggest concern around the topic of CSE in South Africa, is the lack of information from the DBE on the content that will be taught in South African classrooms from January 2020. And not allowing parents and other stakeholders to participate in the development of the new content.
In what follows, we provide guidance to parents/guardians, educators and other stakeholders on the most important actions they can take to affect change in the best interest of the children they serve through the schooling system:
Use existingchannels
We encourage all stakeholders, concerned groups, and individuals to work through existing channels available to them, to engage with the Department of Basic Education.
See the section below “WHAT TO REQUEST FROM DBE AND RELATED ACTIONS” for a list of specific requests to communicate via existing structures and channels.
Parents, guardians andcare-givers
Contact your local School Governing Body (SGB) or School Management Team (SMT) and request them to raise the issues in the list of specific requests with DBE.
Click here to download a copy of the list to send to your SGB or SMT.
Educators and otherstakeholders
Work through your respective oversight and industry bodies. These may include but is not limited to: FEDSAS, NASGB, ISASA, SADTU, SACE, HPCSA and others.
Request your representative body to raise the issues in the list of specific requests with DBE.
Click here to download a copy of the list to send to your representative body.
Contact usfor help
If you need guidance on how to approach the Department of Basic Education or if you don’t have representation of a regulatory or oversight body to approach the DBE, please contact us to work with our team.
Any stakeholder or party who do not have existing channels to engage with DBE, are welcome and are invited to contact Cause for Justice at info@causeforjustice.org, with a request to act on your behalf and represent your interests in this very serious and concerning matter affecting our children.
What to request of DBE andrelated actions
1. Ask the DBE to make full disclosure of:
- DBE must make all completed new content materials / Scripted Lesson Plans (SLPs, consisting of Educator Guides and Learner Workbooks) for each school grade publicly available without delay.
This is imperative to allow parents and other stakeholders the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new content that is proposed to be taught in the LS and LO curricula from 2020 and make informed decisions in the best interest of their children’s health and well-being.
- Names of all contributors to the development of the SLPs (Educator Guides and Learner Workbooks) for each Grade (R – 12).
- The implementation timetable for roll-out of SLPs for all grades, including pilots and full curricular implementation.
- The outcome of all SLP pilots at schools, including reception of the SLPs in all the piloting exercises.
- Names of all contributors to the development and writing of the textbook to support the LS / LO curricula on sexuality education.
- The progress of the textbook writing project, including regular updates.
2. Ask for Adequate Public Participation:
- The DBE should conduct a substantial public participation process with all stakeholders and interested parties to determine whether the public want a national sexuality education curriculum to be provided through schools (and to out-of-school youth).
- The DBE must allow and enable parents and other stakeholders to contribute to or influence the content of the SLPs (new curriculum content) to ensure that children are not violated by the content or influenced by it in a manner that goes against their own, their family or their community values, beliefs and convictions.
3. Recognition, Protection and Diversion:
- Request confirmation from DBE that:
– The state will respect parental rights in respect of the training and education of their children in the area of sexuality, including the right to decide to provide sex education in the home, whether by way of the national curriculum or any other alternative curriculum.
– Provinces, individual schools and/or individual parents will be allowed to teach an alternative curriculum to the state’s sexuality education; or refrain from teaching, alter or replace certain parts of the national curriculum to the extent that they disagree with its contents on rational grounds.
- Non-state sexuality education providers to actively train parents on how to educate their children regarding sexuality, sexual choices and consequences.
- Developing sexuality education curricula as alternative to state-sponsored CSE and rolling these out to all South African communities.
- Parents to train children on character and values-based healthy sexuality, sexual choices, behaviour and consequences.