| On 30th July 2001 the
Education Department released for comment the new National Curriculum. Government
by stealth
The document runs to 1400 pages, uses a deliberately complicated
logic and is almost impossible for most people to obtain. (Official promises to provide
remain unfulfilled for weeks.)
Few teachers have even heard about the document and even fewer have read any of it.
(Ask the ones you know.) Children, parents, churches and communities have received almost
no information at all.
Education for a totalitarian society
The flowery language and the deluge of pages conceal a deliberate
and unlawful intent to impose a totalitarian system of social control that is foreign to
all major cultural and religious traditions in South Africa.
Some have described it as an unparalleled assault on the people of South Africa, on the
Constitution and on democracy itself.
This curriculum will impose not only on state schools but also
on private schools and home education.
Make 100 or more copies of this sheet. Hand it, fax it, post it to
your family, friends, acquaintances, business associates, your church, your local schools
and passers by. |
Deeply concerned analysts, teachers and
parents increasingly agree that the proposed curriculum will do the following: 1. Under
the guise of "Social Sciences", diffuse individual and cultural identities
by a relentless programme of psycho-political conditioning, assaulting the
psychological integrity of children, rendering them vulnerable to propaganda.
2. Under the guise of "Life Orientation", impose the Interfaith
religion as a compulsory, examinable subject, requiring children to confess the
values of this religion if they want to receive recognized qualifications.
3. Under the guise of "critical thinking", establish a norm of
"group think", demonise minorities, individual freedom and enterprise,
obliterating the individual identity of children under the crushing weight of the
collective.
4. Destroy social and cultural diversity by homogenizing all cultural and
moral values and requiring children to demonstrate State approved values to receive
qualifications.
This curriculum promises not education, but
indoctrination. |
- Act Fast!
Closing date for comment is 12th October.
- Inform yourself
Read as much of the curriculum documents as you can –
especially those on Social Sciences and Life Orientation. Download the documents from the
Education Department web page: http://education.pwv.gov.za
Read what experts and stake holders have said about the proposals at http://pestalozzi.org/curriculum
2. Make your voice heard:
Write to: The Minister of Education, Private Bag X603, Pretoria,
0001 or Fax: (012) 323 5989.
(Educate your children about their Constitutional freedoms and about this threat to
their freedoms and ask them to write too!)
Use a polite but firm style.
Voice your concern and protest the minister’s intentions mentioned in this
pamphlet or others that you may discover for yourself.
Make the point that State education has no mandate to impose any values except one: Abidance
by the Law. Any religious and cultural values must be taught in schools according to
the wishes of the children and their families.
You can insist that the governing body of each state school must approve all values
taught in the school, and specifically the subjects Social Sciences and Life Orientation.
Governing bodies must also select the textbooks and supervise assessment of all values in
the school.
- Create awareness
Send copies of your letter to each of the following: a) Your favourite
newspaper b) One or more political parties in Parliament c) The national synod
or representative body of your church or faith community.
Ask them, in your covering letter, what steps they plan to take to protect the
individual, religious and cultural rights of children and families. (See http://pestalozzi.org/curriculum for
addresses). |
