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I. Summary

“There are many problems at this school.  Sometimes we can’t hold classes because the farm manager locks the main gate allowing no public access.  The pupils can only attend class by entering onto the school premises through a hole in the fence.  There is no electricity and no running water at the school. . .The district education officer tells me to see the farm manager about these problems, but the manager refuses to speak to me.  There is no assistance from the farm owner and the department of education does not help us.  School inspectors visited just one month ago but nothing ever changes here.”

            -Primary school teacher, Free State Province, May 23, 2003

The South African government is failing to protect the right to a primary education for children living on commercial farms by neither ensuring their access to farm schools nor maintaining the adequacy of learning conditions at these schools.  This violates South Africa’s 1996 South African Schools Act (Schools Act), the National Education Policy Act, and its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Receiving an education is compulsory for all children up to grade nine or age fifteen, depending on whichever comes first.  The historical, social and economic conditions on commercial farms, inherited from years of an undemocratic minority government, mean that farm schools - public schools on private commercial farms, which constitute 13 percent of all state-funded schools and provide education to about 3 percent of learners in the public school system - are among the poorest in financial resources, physical structure and quality in South Africa.  Farm children may attend schools without electricity, drinking water, sanitation, suitable buildings or adequate learning materials.  Also, children may face harassment from farm owners.

While the present government has made efforts to redress these conditions, including promulgating legislation recognizing education as a right and introducing policies aimed at addressing the needs of the poorest schools in South Africa, a great deal remains to be done; not least the full implementation of national government policies at provincial government level.  Without adequately addressing the conditions at farm schools - which provide an education for farmworkers’ children - they remain impoverished and limit children’s educational opportunities.

The government has adopted a legal framework to convert schools on commercial farms from largely farm owner-controlled institutions to ordinary government-managed public schools with limited farm owner responsibility, through a process of concluding contracts with each farm owner where a school is located.  But the process of concluding these contracts has been unacceptably slow and threatens the continued operation of schools.  To date, a minority of these farm schools is governed by such agreements.  In some cases, the farm owner or manager of the land on which a farm school is built has actively tried to prevent children or teachers from accessing the school.  While government officials and police do, on occasion, intervene to ensure access, these interventions do not prevent future interference.  By not negotiating these agreements, the legal status of the schools is uncertain and the responsibility for the provision of services on the premises left ambiguous.  Furthermore, ineffective remedial measures prohibiting landowners or managers from preventing physical access to premises demonstrate that the government is failing to protect the right of children on commercial farms to receive a primary education––a right the government is legally obliged to protect under the Schools Act, the National Education Policy Act and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Farm schools are the only accessible sites of education for many children who live with their parents or relatives on commercial farms.  Historically under apartheid, farm owners established these schools - in part to keep the children occupied by providing a basic, limited education while their parents or relatives worked on the farm.  The owner was effectively in charge of the school, though he/she received a state subsidy under an agreement with the government.  The joint government and farm owner- management of farm schools confused the roles of government and farm owner in the provision of education in a way that continues today.  Since the introduction of a new legal framework governing schools in South Africa, farm schools have been classified as public schools on private property.  The 1996 Schools Act provides for the transition of farm schools from their previous status to public schools.  As part of this process, contractual agreements must be concluded between farm owners and the provincial departments of education.  The Schools Act also makes provision for the expropriation of the land on which a school is built in the public interest - that is for educational purposes - if an agreement cannot be concluded.  At the time of writing, land had not been expropriated.

There are still hundreds of schools on commercial farms in South Africa where no new contract exists between the farm owner and the provincial government.  In some cases, the extent to which a previous agreement is applicable is not clear.  This uncertainty jeopardizes the status of the school on private land.  Yet, this report shows, even where an agreement is in place, the uneasy relationship between the needs of a public school and the demands of a private landowner places the right to education in a precarious situation.  The sale or rent of a farm, or a change in the activities on a farm, can result in access to the school being denied.

Most farm schools have only the barest of facilities—a classroom.  Water and power supply, which in a number of cases depend on the co-operation of the landowner, are not always available.  At some schools fresh drinking water is not available.  The lack of power affects the administrative activities at a school and also hinders advancement in teaching.  The state, or where applicable the farm owner, is required in terms of the regulations made under the Schools Act to provide basic services such as adequate drinking water, sanitation and power.  Some schools lack sanitation altogether; in others the facilities are in disrepair and unhygienic.  Failing to provide basic services, which encompass the fulfillment of the right to education, are directly linked to an absence of contracts that would normally delineate which party - state or farm owner - is responsible for their provision.

This report documents cases where landowners obstructed physical access to schools or frustrated their functioning by suspending water supply or closing off short routes to a school.  A landowner may use the threat of closure of a school to drive parents off the farm to a location where they can find education for their children.  Greater efforts need to be made to secure the tenure of farm schools and thereby protect the right to education, in particular by ensuring the speedy conclusion of agreements with the landowners of schools that are not yet covered by this process.  The government should - in line with the Schools Act and the South African constitution - develop guidelines for the expropriation of land in the public interest in instances where agreement cannot be reached and measures to resolve the matter have been exhausted. 

The lack of state-funded transport from homes to farm schools further hinders the right of access to education in commercial farm areas.  Because commercial farms are large and children from neighboring farms travel long journeys on foot, the lack of transportation can prevent children in South Africa’s commercial farming districts from accessing schools.  For example, two-thirds of the children - some as young as eight years old - attending a farm school in Vaalwater, Limpopo Province travel up to thirty kilometers on foot each morning to school.  Fatigue and exhaustion adversely affect these and many other children’s ability to adequately participate in activities in the classroom.  Furthermore, children are exposed to dangers such as sexual assault and road accidents when walking to and from school.  This can result in non-attendance or irregular attendance.  This report argues that the state’s provision of transportation, particularly for those pupils who have to walk long distances to schools and do not have the financial means to pay for transportation, is essential for access to education.  

South Africa is a party to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantee the right to a primary education - a component of basic education.  With the passage of the Schools Act and the 1996 National Education Policy Act, the government has committed itself to making basic education accessible to all school-age children.  The effective implementation of these government policies at schools on commercial farms is crucial in the provision of this right.    

The hardships children in the farming community face are enormous.  Their parents’ precarious tenure on the land, poverty, and poorly resourced police services that are unable to deliver prompt assistance to children, all affect the enjoyment of children’s right to education as enshrined in the South African constitution.  However, there are steps that can and should be taken by the state to guarantee the right to education of children on farms.  The primary responsibility to protect the right to an education for children attending farm schools rests with the government.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces in South Africa during 2003 where we documented cases where accessibility and availability of the right to education are seriously hampered.  Researchers visited twenty-eight schools and conducted interviews with teachers, children, parents, farmworkers and farm owners.  We also conducted interviews with provincial education and labor department officials, social workers, and land rights organizations.   In this report, the word “child” refers to anyone under the age of eighteen.  The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child states: “For the purposes of the present Convention, a child is every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.”¹