Fedsas: report awaited

ACCORDING to a media statement on March 27 by the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, (Fedsas), a comprehensive report on children’s opinions regarding religion in schools will only be available later in April this year.

For this reason court documents of the six schools involved in a test case regarding a school’s policy and practices pertaining to religion will probably only be filed in May this year.

An application for postponement was lodged in the Gauteng High Court last Thursday.

“We want to reiterate that time cannot be the determining factor in this case. For that the scope and impact of this case is simply too big,” says Paul Colditz, CEO of Fedsas. Fedsas is a voluntary association of school governing bodies of public schools and supports quality education in these schools. More than 1 800 public schools are already members of Fedsas.

The Organisasie vir Godsdiensonderrig en Demokrasie (Ogod) asked the constitutional court last year to declare it unconstitutional for certain religious practices to be given preference above others. Six schools are named in this application. The governing bodies of these six schools are members of Fedsas, and Fedsas forms part of these governing bodies’ legal team.

“The voice of the child is crucial. Not only is this a constitutional imperative, but Ogod’s own constitution declares ‘that children have the right so say what they think should happen and have their opinions taken into account when adults are making decisions that affect children.

However, up to this point this organisation has not shown that it really takes the children’s voice into account.”

In order to listen to children the schools involved have obtained the expert services of a psychiatric forensic social worker, Dr Tanya Robinson, to amplify the voice of the child in the application.”Dr Robinson’s investigation requires intensive research. This includes visiting all six respondent schools during the first quarter of this year, conducting a survey on learners’ views regarding religious practices in schools, an analysis of the data and the compilation of a comprehensive report.

“This is a time-consuming task and the report will therefore not be published before mid-April,” says Colditz.

The research project is an initiative of Fedsas, with AfriForum supporting Fedsas and the schools with legal costs.

Colditz says cases such as these rest upon penetrating and comprehensive research. “Making informed decisions is a key aspect of a democracy. Informed decisions are based on extensive information and Fedsas, as part of the schools’legal team, will continue to gather and investigate all possible facts pertaining to,this case.”