The South African government is failing to protect the right to a primary education for children living on commercial farms by neither ensuring their access to farm schools nor maintaining the adequacy of learning conditions at these schools. This violates South Africa's 1996 South African Schools Act (Schools Act), the National Education Policy Act, and its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Receiving an education is compulsory for all children up to grade nine or age fifteen, depending on whichever comes first. The historical, social and economic conditions on commercial farms, inherited from years of an undemocratic minority government, mean that farm schools - public schools on private commercial farms, which constitute 13 percent of all state-funded schools and provide education to about 3 percent of learners in the public school system - are among the poorest in financial resources, physical structure and quality in South Africa. Farm children may attend schools without electricity, drinking water, sanitation, suitable buildings or adequate learning materials. Also, children may face harassment from farm owners. While the present government has made efforts to redress these conditions, including promulgating legislation recognizing education as a right and introducing policies aimed at addressing the needs of the poorest schools in South Africa, a great deal remains to be done; not least the full implementation of national government policies at provincial government level. Without adequately addressing the conditions at farm schools - which provide an education for farmworkers' children - they remain impoverished and limit children's educational opportunities. The government has adopted a legal framework to convert schools on commercial farms from largely farm owner-controlled institutions to ordinary government-managed public schools with limited farm owner responsibility, through a process of concluding contracts with each farm owner where a school is located. But the process of concluding these contracts has been unacceptably slow and threatens the continued operation of schools. To date, a minority of these farm schools is governed by such agreements. In some cases, the farm owner or manager of the land on which a farm school is built has actively tried to prevent children or teachers from accessing the school. While government officials and police do, on occasion, intervene to ensure access, these interventions do not prevent future interference. By not negotiating these agreements, the legal status of the schools is uncertain and the responsibility for the provision of services on the premises left ambiguous. Furthermore, ineffective remedial measures prohibiting landowners or managers from preventing physical access to premises demonstrate that the government is failing to protect the right of children on commercial farms to receive a primary education - a right the government is legally obliged to protect under the Schools Act, the National Education Policy Act and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Farm schools are the only accessible sites of education for many children who live with their parents or relatives on commercial farms. Historically under apartheid, farm owners established these schools - in part to keep the children occupied by providing a basic, limited education while their parents or relatives worked on the farm. The owner was effectively in charge of the school, though he/she received a state subsidy under an agreement with the government. The joint government and farm owner- management of farm schools confused the roles of government and farm owner in the provision of education in a way that continues today. Since the introduction of a new legal framework governing schools in South Africa, farm schools have been classified as public schools on private property. The 1996 Schools Act provides
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Creator(s)
Bronwen Manby,Former Deputy Director, Africa Division,Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Nobuntu Mbelle,Former Deputy Director, Africa Division,Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Georgette Gagnon,Former Deputy Director, Africa Division,Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Wilder Tayler,Former Deputy Director, Africa Division,Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Iain Levine,Former Deputy Director, Africa Division,Human Rights Watch (HRW)