At the start of 1986 there appeared to be a prospect of it being a year of no education. At the end of 1985 there had been no attendance at secondary schools in several areas and many students, especially after the banning of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) in September, were repeating the slogan 'Liberation Now, Education Later'.
At a national educational conference in December 1985 organised by the Soweto Parents Crisis Committee (SPCC) and held at the University of the Witwatersrand, it was suggested that students return to school on 28 January – 20 days after the official term was due to begin. A number of demands were put forward and a deadline of three months set for them to be met. The conference also recommended that parents should not pay school fees or buy school books and stationery.
A second conference was planned for March to assess the extent to which the demands had been met. If no progress had been made the conference would, amongst other things, recommend a nationally co-ordinated boycott.
When schools reopened on 8 January they remained deserted in most areas where boycotts had been in force. Although the authorities reached a compromise and said that students could register until 28 January, public meetings to discuss the resolutions of the conference were banned in eight areas of the Transvaal under the emergency regulations. Despite the bannings students returned to school on 28 January. In some schools of the Eastern Cape students returned but refused to attend classes until their demands were met.
The SPCC called on students not to write examinations in early February and teachers in Soweto refused to be involved in them. Then, at a meeting between the Department of Education and Training (DET), school principals and the SPCC in February, it was decided to postpone secondary school examinations to March.
By mid-February the return to schools began to falter due to protests at continuing shootings by the police, detentions and in observance of anniversaries of earlier deaths of students. Short-term stayaways were called in many areas to commemorate anniversaries and attend funerals, for the duration of court appearances or because of shootings and detentions.
By the end of February schools began to empty again, especially in areas of unrest. Schooling in Alexandra, Witbank and some parts of the Northern Transvaal came to a halt. In other areas boycotts were resumed because principals continued charging fees, despite the DET's ruling that education would be free.
Several new student organisations and regional education crisis committees have been formed since the beginning of the year and a National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) set up to co-ordinate their activities. In mid-March the NECC said that in the face of continued police/student confrontations, detentions, shootings and the transfer of teachers from troubled areas, the situation was worse than it had been before the December conference.
At a meeting between the DET and the SPCC in March, the Department claimed that it was engaged in an extensive programme of providing new schools and repairing others damaged in the unrest; and that detailed regulations had been instituted to protect students from corporal punishment abuses and to protect female students from sexual harassment. The DET had also announced shortly before the return to classes that all African schools would be supplied with free stationery this year and free set-work books next year.
On 7 March, three weeks before the date of the planned conference to review the regime's response to the demands of students and parents, the State of Emergency was lifted. Some other demands were partially met: Standard 3 to 9 examinations were postponed to March and matriculation exams to May; SRCs were established at a number of schools.
However, it appeared that schools might be plunged into an even more severe crisis as the most substantial demands had still not been met. Students and teachers continued to be detained, and there had been delays of free stationery promised by the Department.
