A topic which has caused a lot of hype recently is that of the proposed new pledge that the government wants school children in South Africa to recite very morning. The Department of Education is hoping that this pledge will “develop responsible young South Africans who live up to the values enshrined in the Constitution”.
The pledge will be gazetted this week, and the public will be allowed 30 days to make comments on the pledge. The SA Democratic Teachers Union said it would discuss the pledge in its general meeting to be held on the 20th of February. Consultation with other teacher’s unions and stakeholders are also expected to take place during the 30-day period.
After the public consultation process, the Department of Education wants to formally introduce the pledge on the 21st of March – Human Rights Day. Pupils will then be expected to recite the pledge every morning during assembly, and occasionally during class.
The Pledge:
We, the youth of South Africa Recognising the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered and sacrificed for justice and freedom. We will respect and protect the dignity of each person, and stand up for justice. We sincerely declare that we shall uphold the rights and values of our constitution and promise to act in accordance with the duties and responsibilities that flow from these rights. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.The pledge has been received with mixed emotions – The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA said the the pledge had “huge potential”, while the Freedom Front Plus has promised it would fight the pledge every step of the way.
Jaco Mulder, a FF Plus Legislature member claimed that “[the] oath is nothing more than an attempt by the ANC to indoctrinate vulnerable schoolchildren with a permanent guilt complex”.
It was shocking, said Mulder, that a government “which had phased out compulsory religious education, scripture reading and prayers at schools now wants to expose those same children to their (government’s) twisted ideology”.
The government seems to be causing quite a stir recently – first the new kissing law, and now this.
I’m trying to decide what to think of this! It’s very American in my opinion and I’m not sure what is the correct approach for South Africa. I guess we’re going to have to watch closely and see what aspires from it..
Chris, I too can’t decide where I stand. I think the idea is kind of nice, but indoctrination is definitely a concern.
I think I’ll blog about it on SA Rocks.
Keep a look out for the post!
Good post btw.
Hey Nic,
Ye, there are two completely different ways to look at this. I think it’s also hard to view it from our situations, being out of school and all. I would be interested to hear from some students as to what they think.
I’ll keep an eye out for your post and hopefully a trackback, haha ;)
Credits go to Haydndup, he did the post :)
Chris, this is not very American, it’s very HITLER.
This is exactly what Hitler did in his rule over Germany..
dark times ahead. Excuse the pun.
True, but it just has a whole American feel to it as well, which is not something I’m certain is correct for South Africa, but obviously this is all just about personal opinions!
I find it ironic that the pledge is supposed to encourage the youth to “live up to the values enshrined in the constitution” when it is clearly an alienation of their constitutional rights. Being forced into reciting the ANC’s propaganda? As if our government isn’t enough of a joke as is
Glad to see that everyone is expressing their own opinions so strongly :)
;)
That wasn’t strongly haha that was reworded 5 times.
Murry, you’re spot on. The ANC is all about irony and contradiction.
I’m all for the new pledge. I think it’ll instil a level of respect in the youth of today and the future and should hopefully prevent or minimise the current yob culture seen in the UK where “the youths” have absolutely no respect for anyone, not even their own parents.
One question: Have they removed the coat of arms motto from the pledge? I noticed on both your version and SA Rocks (probably take from your site) that the line “!ke e: /xarra //ke” is missing. Check out SouthAfrica.info to see what I mean.
Hi Colin, sorry your comment didn’t appear, it was caught in spam, I guess because of the url you posted, hehe.
Interesting, I wonder why they went ahead and did that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the pledge changes shape continually!
Hi all,
Thanks so much for all your opinions – it is greatly appreciated and I welcome any comments / criticisms you may have.
Regards
I personally feel that this is ridiculous, me being a 16 year old White South African Male Student, i would not be caught alive reciting this pledge, our government is trying to look busy making up this shit, where they could actually just do their proper job…
http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10114042022
Thanks for expressing your opinion on the matter Ryan, as Haydndup said, he appreciates all the comments :)