UWC Research Proposes Innovative Model for Public School Admissions in South Africa
School feeder zones are a reality for many parents when they apply to primary and high schools for placement of their children.
The current legislation is interpreted as such, that in most parts of the country it allows school governing bodies to establish these zones based on the school’s geographical location and the demarcated area set for leaner admissions.
Lisa Draga has completed her Doctor of Philosophy studies at the UWC Department of Public Law and Jurisprudence and her research focused on access to equal education, feeder zones and former ‘Model C’ schools.
Armed with her Law Degree from UWC and her Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri, Draga gained practical experience in social justice lawyering and worked towards achieving equal education in South Africa.
She was a clerk at the Constitutional Court, and also co-founded the Equal Education Law Centre in 2012, where she encountered issues related to school admissions and feeder zones, which ultimately inspired her research.
Draga said: “Schools can cherry-pick learners, be it for athletic ability or socioeconomic circumstance. Currently, there’s this clandestine sorting of learners that’s happening at schools. It’s not just happening along racial lines. It can be socioeconomic lines. The difficulty remains that as long as it’s left in the hands of school governing bodies, it creates the space for this manipulation of the system.”
Draga said her research advocates for a review of current legislation and possible amendments.
“The Schools Act gives the minister the power to make admission regulations, and in doing so the Minister can compel HODs (Heads of Departments) to engage in transformative zoning. MECs can also amend provincial legislation on admissions to require heads of department to engage in transformative zoning. Ultimately, the idea is not to disempower school governing bodies, but that when heads of department do establish these feeder zones themselves, they do it in a manner in which they’re including disenfranchised communities.”
Draga is passionate about continuing the conversation about reviewing the schools admission policy and highlighted the fact that it is also in the best interests of historically privileged schools that this is done without delay.
“The risk we run is that this egalitarian society that we’re all striving towards won’t happen, because ultimately if a lever doesn’t shift, if something doesn’t change, and we keep going the way we’re going at the moment, we’re just becoming a more and more unequal and unsustainable society,” she said.