ACDP supports March to Parliament to Oppose New Curriculum

Rev K Meshoe MP - ACDP

Tuesday 13 November 2001


African Christian Democratic Party President, Rev Kenneth Meshoe today addressed a large group of concerned citizens who marched to Parliament today to hand over a memorandum to the Minister of Education, Mr Kader Asmal, highlighting their concerns with the proposed New National Curriculum 2005.

Addressing the crowd, Rev Meshoe congratulated the Concerned Communities for Education for organising the peaceful march to Parliament this morning and commended all those Christian parents, leaders and young people who chose to use their constitutional right to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions.

Rev Meshoe said that as parents and concerned citizens they should not allow the state to teach their children to become “little fornicators”. Rev Meshoe displayed a Life Skills chart, which he said is already in the process of being distributed to schools to be used in sex education lessons for children as young as 7 years old. He described the flipcharts as pornographic and said that their use in schools under the supervision of the new proposed Curriculum 2005 would turn our children into "little fornicators".

Rev Meshoe encouraged communities, parents and teachers to teach the children of South Africa, the value and preciousness of their virginity and to encourage them to abstain until marriage.

The march to Parliament was well attended by approximately 600 concerned citizens comprised of parents, teachers and students who waved placards like, “No to Godless Education!” The groups' memorandum was handed over to Chief Director: Ministerial Service, Ministry of Education, Mr Maxwell Fuzani, who accepted it on behalf of Minster Asmal.

Among the concerns and demands laid out in the memorandum are:

· The testing and evaluation of children’s values through state specified outcomes should be scrapped. This is unethical. Assessments must be limited to content and skills only. This is a violation of conscience and privacy.
· Freedom of religion and conscience should be protected through the school governing bodies (SGBs). A school / community has the right to choose the religious ethos of schools. This freedom should not be robbed from parents and communities. Parents, through SGBs, should have the right to choose their own courses on all subjects that teach on sexuality, family life and religion.
· Radical state sex education that includes graphic descriptions of sexual practises and focuses on the genitals from the age of ten should be subject to parental consent and parental choice. For example, parents are in the best position to know whether their primary school child is ready for graphic descriptions of oral sex, as is currently being taught. SGBs should have the right to choose the type of sex education they want for their communities. Radical U.S.-style Planned Parenthood sex education imposed on local communities without choice is undemocratic. These systems have failed hopelessly in the United States and have resulted in massive increases in teen pregnancy, STDs and HIV/AIDS among young teenagers. The imposition of Planned Parenthood sex education imported from the United States is tantamount to moral colonialism.
· Teaching children the worship practises and values of other religions through a multi-faith religious system from pre-primary, against parents’ wishes, is a gross violation of freedom of religion, conscience and belief.
· The proposed banning of devotions, including prayer from school assemblies, regardless of parental choice is a violation of parents’ rights and the statutory provision that allows SGBs to choose the religious ethos of schools.
· Parents should have free access to all materials and teachers’ manuals. Outcomes should be transparent and the Department of Education should be accountable to parents and SGBs.
· Freedom of choice, conscience and religion should be upheld through the protection of independent private (including religious schools) and homeschools from state imposed outcomes. We stand for academic pluralism.
· A lack of market competition and an emphasis on state-imposed values, rather than academic excellence, will result in lowered academic standards.
· The consultation process has been undemocratic as regards the formulation of the New National Curriculum, the Planned Parenthood sex education and the proposed scrapping of the SGB’s freedom to choose schools’ religious ethos.
· The Department of Education should understand that children are not the property of the state - they are first and foremost under God’s authority, and then the parents / family.


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For more information please call ACDP President Rev Meshoe at (021) 403 3521 or ACDP Media Liaison Liza Bloemetje at 082 4781037