Ouerseggenskap in die stelsel van onderwysvoorsiening aan Blankes in die provinsie die Kaap die Goeie Hoop

Abstract

One of the most important recommendations of the Report or the Main Committee or the HSRC-Investigation into Education (1981), comprises a three-level system of control in education. This system or control has to provide strong, built-in structures and procedures for participation, consultation and negotiation at each or these three levels. These structures and procedures ensure that all persons, including the White parent, and interested parties concerned with education in South Africa, will have a say in both educational policy and practice. In this way the devolution of authority in educational control is proposed, so that the responsibility and share in educational teaching will be transferred, as far as possible, to the third level of educational control. Host of the educational principles included in the HSRC-investigation of education are concerned with the matter of parental involvement in educational teaching. The following aims have been formulated for this research: The first and fundamental aim is to indicate that the parent, as first, natural and primary educator of his child, should have a say in and insight into a system governing the provision of education for Whites in the Cape of Good Hope. From this fundamental aim four related aims have been deduced and formulated to indicate that: • it is the Christian parent's calling and responsibility to determine the spirit and orientation of educational teaching at the school; • structures through which school and home can be associated more closely, must be created; • parents in the Cape have had a say in the educational teaching of their children since the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck; and • greater parental involvement in educational teaching increases the parents' say in these matters. In addition to the formulation of aims, the following have also received consideration in chapter one: • research methodology: the methods that have been employed in the course of the research are a study o:f the relevant literature, the method of fundamental contemplation and the historically descriptive method; • central concepts: such as Christian world and life view and educational teaching, as well as related ideas like religion, mainspring, religious mainspring, teaching and education, which define the central concepts more closely; and • the structure of the research. Following the exhaustive study of the literature, chapter two determines the origin, structure, duty and domain of the parental home and the school, from a Christian point of view, by using the method of fundamental contemplation. There is also an attempt to find a basis for good cooperation between the home and school. For the Christian parent, who maintains a Christian world and life view, it is important to know: • which values and norms are taught at school; • which spirit and orientation prevail at the school his child is attending and • if a teacher with the same world and life view as the parent is appointed at the school. Chapter three contains a description of the development of the local government and of the share that parents have had in the provision of education for Whites in the Cape of Good Hope from 1652 to 1985. The degree of involvement of the parental home in determining the spirit and orientation of the school receives special consideration. It has been indicated that in the period 1652 to 1985 the share of parents in the control of education has developed from a system of indirect involvement of the parent, to a system of school-boards and committees, in which the parent has a limited say in the educational teaching of his child. The School-Board Act 5 of 1905 which, by means of the institution of school-boards and committees, established a particular relationship between provincial educational authorities and parents, is also discussed. Chapter four examines the meaning and implications of the Report of the Main Committee into the HSRC-Investigation of Education (1981), the government's White paper on the Provision of Education in the Republic of South Africa {1983), as regards the share of parents in a system of provision of education for Whites, the law on the National Policy for General Education Affairs (Act 76 of 1984) and the Afrikaanse Ouervereniging vir Christelike opvoeding en onderwys. It is indicated, furthermore, that it is possible for the Afrikaanse Ouervereniging to exist side-by-side with organizations such as the parent-teacher's association, the school committee, board of control or school board. In many instances they can cooperate and supplement each other to eliminate over lapping of activities. In chapter four it is also indicated how the Cape Education Department has taken the initiative to constitute regional boards for school committee members. By involving democratically chosen school committees in the selection of regional boards, all the parents in the Cape are drawn into this process. It is made clear that should the Cape Education Department allow the regional boards to function individually, the continued existence of the Afrikaanse Ouervereniging will be in jeopardy. In chapter five a few problem areas are isolated, inferences are drawn and recommendations are made. After the aims have been argued and evaluated in chapter five, the conclusion is reached that the parent, as first, natural and primary educator of his child, should have a say in the provision of education in the Cape of Good Hope.