The inclusion of the right to education seeks to ensure that all South Africans are able to receive equal access to quality education.
Adult education seeks to bridge the gaps in social capital that exist as a result of the racist system espoused in the Bantu Education Act, which entrenched apartheid into the school system, a legacy that remains to this day.
Problems of integration and cohesion are addressed by the Department of Basic Education through the Directorate of Race and Values in Education through projects, including the Bill of Responsibilities.
Everyone has the right
- to a basic education, including adult basic education; and
- to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.
Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable. In order to ensure the effective access to, and implementation of, this right, the state must consider all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, taking into account
- equity;
- practicability; and
- the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices.
Everyone has the right to establish and maintain, at their own expense, independent educational institutions that
- do not discriminate on the basis of race;
- are registered with the state; and
- maintain standards that are not inferior to standards at comparable public educational institutions.
Subsection (3) does not preclude state subsidies for independent educational institutions.
