Godsdiens in onderwys in Suid–Afrika: beligting vanuit internasionaal-vergelykende perspektiewe

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a comparative-international perspective on South African policy on religion in education, based on a capita selecta of ten national/regional education systems worldwide. The relation between religion and education in the following ten countries/regions are surveyed: the United States of America, Western Europe, Armenia, Israel, Iran, Malaysia, Japan, Tanzania, South Africa and Brazil. The conclusion is that the widely proclaimed credo of secular public education is a chimera; a practical impossibility which is even further thwarted by a number of disadvantages. The total usurpation of national education by a mono-perspectivistic religion, especially in the context of a theocratic state or a religiously intolerant state, also results in a number of (intended and unintended) undesired consequences. A positive accommodation of religion and religious diversity in public education is recommended. the powers vested in school governing bodies by the South African Schools Act (1996) indeed makes such an accommodation within the South African context possible