Commissioner Nomahlubi Khwinana. I SAHRC
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) found that quality education is not taking place in South Africa, among other issues, impacting the right to education.
Commissioner Nomahlubi Khwinana was speaking at the National Children’s Rights Conference in Durban on Saturday. The SAHRC hosted the conference, facilitated through the Commission’s Child Rights Unit (CRU), and is funded by the United Nations Emergency Children’s Fund (UNICEF), themed: Education is a Human Right.
Spokesperson for SAHRC, Wisani Baloyi, said Child Rights Ambassadors elected their national executive members, who will coordinate the national programme for promoting and protecting children’s rights. The executive’s primary role will be to work alongside the CRU in planning child-led activities and events.
Baloyi said the aim of the conference is to raise awareness of children’s rights by educating children on their rights and responsibilities, adding that it seeks to stimulate child rights empowerment through talent showcases and storytelling by children.
Commissioner Nomahlubi Khwinana said education is not merely a privilege; it is the foundation upon which the future of individuals, communities, and nations is built. It is crucial to understand how education, as a human right, transcends borders, cultures, and legal frameworks, and how its realisation demands action from all.
“As a commissioner overseeing children’s rights, I supervise teams that travel throughout the country to conduct human rights workshops, which we call activations, and elect Child Rights Ambassadors. The Child Rights Ambassadors assist the commission by bringing about the voices of children into the work of the commission at the level of promotion and monitoring mandate,” she said.
The SAHRC identified key issues that impact the right to education. These include:
Khwinana said that while many teachers are passionate, committed, and hard-working, the commission found that there were too many teachers who have low morale, spend too little time in the classroom, are unqualified or under-qualified, are not sufficiently trained in the new curriculum, and use outdated teaching methods in classes that are too big.
Additionally, the SAHRC discovered a lack of connection between educators and the populations they serve. It discovered:
It recommended actions to protect and realise the right to education for children.
Khwinana said that while international, regional, and national legal frameworks have made great strides, there is still much work to be done to ensure that every child, everywhere, has access to quality education.
“It is not enough to have rights on paper; we must take action to protect and realise these rights. It is with this in mind that all stakeholders, more specifically, children are called into this conference to make recommendations on how we can begin to address these challenges,” she said.
The national conference was attended by 27 Child Rights Ambassadors representing all nine South African provinces, along with representatives from United Nations Emergency Children’s Fund, Section27, Equal Education Social Movement, Equal Education Law Centre, and children from other child rights organisations.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za