‘Education needs less talk, more action’

SA Human Rights Commission chairman Lawrence Mushwana. Picture: Phill Magakoe

SA Human Rights Commission chairman Lawrence Mushwana. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Feb 1, 2013

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Johannesburg - South Africa needs to develop an education system that will ensure every child receives good basic education, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Thursday.

“After 20 years into the democratic dispensation we are still arguing about the norms and standards of education,” the commission's chairman advocate Lawrence Mushwana told journalists at the launch of the Charter of Basic Education Rights.

“We need to once and for all come up with a system that will ensure good quality education for all.”

The charter provides standards for realising quality education and guidelines for those entrusted with the provision of basic education. It is also intended to generate discussions towards the improvement of education in the country, Mushwana said.

“Every child is entitled to good education. We have spent time talking and with little action as far as the child's right to education is concerned.”

The basic education department and organisations such as Advocacy Aid, Unicef, the Children's Institute and the Legal Resources Centre were some of the organisations that helped the SAHRC draft the charter.

Unicef's South Africa representative Aida Girma said the country had joined the only two other countries in the world that had children education charters. - Sapa

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