Yes. Home education is a legally recognised alternative to formal education in South Africa. It was legalised in 1996. Section 51 of the SA Schools Act states that the parents have the option to register their child with the HOD of a Provincial Education Department should they wish to educate their child at home.

Yes. According to the Bela Bill, if a parent does not register their child for Home Education or follow the stipulated guidelines, they may face jail time. This was also the case with the Policy on Home Education; however, the sentencing period has increased.

Homeschooling provides the flexibility that traditional schools cannot offer. In general, parents decide to homeschool when their child has particular needs that cannot be accommodated with a traditional school, such as a busy sports schedule, where they cannot attend a traditional school for months on end, or where the learner needs dedicated attention and larger schools cannot accommodate this.

If the learner is following a CAPS curriculum like Impaq, they can easily integrate back into a mainstream school. CAPS adheres to the curriculum directives set out by the Department of Education. Your child can finish Grade 12 with CAPS and achieve the NSC, just like if he/she has been attending a public school.

Home Education (often referred to as Homeschooling) is where parents choose to educate their children at home instead of sending them to a traditional public or private school for a variety of reasons including:

1. Dissatisfaction with the educational options available.
2. Different religious beliefs or educational philosophies.
3. Sport and/or educational commitments where the child’s schedule cannot be accommodated by a traditional school.
4. Learning challenges.

Section 3 of the SASA states that school attendance is compulsory for children from the age of 7-15 years. Homeschooling is a legal alternative to traditional private or public schools. Distance learning applies to learners older than 15 i.e. learners in the FET Phase (Grade 10-12). Distance learning is an alternative education option that provides support, material and guidance for learners to complete their studies without physically attending a school/educational institution.

Section 51 of the SASA states that parents must register their child with the HOD of a Provincial Education Department, should they wish to home-educate their child who is of compulsory school age (7-15 years).

The law provides parents with the choice of whether to enrol their children at a school or educate them at home. When a child is educated at a school, it is the responsibility of the school to ensure the education of the child is of a good standard and where applicable, complies with the requirements of the national curriculum(CAPS).

When a child is educated at home, the responsibility shifts to the parents and cannot be delegated or assigned to anyone else. Parents are responsible for ensuring that the standard of education reviewed at home is at least equivalent to the standard education the child would have received in a public school.

The Bela Bill is an amendment to the current act and the majority of its attention is focused on changes in schools. The law does not want to stop all homeschooling activities. For Homeschooling, there is an intensified focus on the curriculums used by parents (which favours the use of the CAPS curriculum). Homeschooling remains a legal alternative to private and public schools, and you do not need to be concerned.

Yes. Depending on your curriculum of choice.

With Impaq, all applications should be submitted by the legal guardian. Barriers to learning can be described as significant disabilities that compromise a learner’s performance in the classroom. As such, assessment accommodations and concessions are meant to assist learners who face barriers to learning to be able to perform to the best of their ability. The additional support may however not provide the candidate with an unfair advantage over the other candidate who does not receive the same support.

Academic accommodations and or concessions apply to Grade 4-12 learners as learners in the Foundation Phase do not complete formal assessments.