On 21 June 2012 the abovementioned group of civil society organisations wrote an open letter to the Minister of Basic Education requesting her to convene an urgent meeting to discuss the deepening crisis in education and the ways in which civil society can work with the Department of Basic Education to find workable solutions to this crisis.
Our open letter of 21 June 2012 was made in good faith in an attempt to discuss a sustainable strategic plan to address the education crisis following the Minister and her officials’ attempts to trivialise the litigation that her Department is facing. These civil society organisations are at times forced to resort to litigation, but would prefer to work with the Department to identify short- and long-term interventions to secure the right to basic education.
The Minister has failed to respond to this invitation. Her spokesperson mentioned in a prior media statement that the DBE had approached the Nelson Mandela Foundation to arrange an Education Summit to address these pressing issues. No invitation to a summit has been received. These civil society organisations have now sent a follow-up letter to the Minister of Basic Education on 15 August 2012, requesting her urgent consideration of our request to convene this meeting.
For more information contact:
SECTION27: Mark Heywood on 083 634 8806
Legal Resources Centre: Sarah Sephton on 083 410 7646
Centre for Child Law: Ann Skelton on 082 443 2702
Equal Education: Doron Isaacs on 082 850 2111
Equal Education Law Centre: Dmitri Holtzman on 082 733 5000
CALS: Zeenat Sujee on 083 457 8227
