An Investigation Of The Extent To Which Liberal Principles Shaped The South African Schools Act Of 1996

Abstract

By November 1996 the vision of an equitable South African education system moved closer to becoming a reality with the establishment of the South African Schools Act (SASA). The SASA can be seen as a definitive break from apartheid education. The perception that liberalism has generally not received a warm reception amongst South Africans might not be entirely convincing. However, we have in South Africa a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which display liberal features. I argue that liberal features of our government are also present in the SASA. It would appear that liberal principles are very generic values, but I do conclude with a typology of Gray (1986) onto which I build a framework of liberal principles for my purpose, viz. individualism, freedom, autonomy, egalitarianism, meliorism and universalism. On the basis of these principles, the purpose of a liberal education is to develop the learner into a person who is able to act freely, rationally, autonomously and who has concern for the intrinsically worthwhile rather than the solely utilitarian. The various characteristics of a liberal education, I argue, can be brought under two main principles: liberal education is antidiscriminatory by protecting learner's rights, and it develops autonomy of the individual through the development of a learner's rational, aesthetic and moral capacities. This frame of liberalism and liberal education is used in Chapter 5 to analyse the SASA. My mini thesis suggests that liberal principles are implicit in the SASA of 1996.