The struggle against the education provided for black people under apartheid has for long been considered by the regime to be a central component of the mass struggle against apartheid. For this reason the steps taken under the emergency to break the ongoing schools boycott and thwart efforts to set up alternative forms of education have been particularly harsh.
The Department of Education and Training (DET) postponed the date of return after the mid-year holidays from 1 July to 14 July and introduced a series of measures which it hoped would force students to return to classes and prevent further boycotts. Regulations were promulgated which obliged principals to re-register all their students, to issue identity documents and to employ guards to ensure that registered students remained on school grounds during school hours and that all but specifically authorised non-students remained out. The DET was empowered to refuse registration in its schools to any students and to assign any student to any standard it deemed appropriate. The decision of the Department was made final and legal redress was specifically excluded. (GN 14/15.7.86)
Further instructions were issued to teachers to be on school premises from 8 am to 4 pm each school day, with one hour for lunch. No teacher was to leave the school grounds during those hours. Some teachers were also told to bring overalls to school so that they could clean the premises. African schools employ no school cleaners and are usually cleaned by pupils. (Star 7.7.86)
The DET claimed to have formulated the measures after discussions with 60 inspectors and 7,000 principals in the seven DET regions. Students, teachers, teachers' associations and progressive educational organisations were not consulted. Predictions of mass detentions of students, dismissals of teachers and the total collapse of black education were predicted.
An emergency proclamation was gazetted shortly before the opening of schools, empowering the DET to expel all students who failed to comply with the regulations, and providing that no expulsion could be contested in any court of law.
In the Western Cape, for instance, the proclamation banned students from being outside their classes during school hours, from taking part in non-educational activities and banned outside speakers from addressing students. In terms of the regulations registered students may be outside a classroom only during break, while visiting a changing room or while changing classes. Students, if they remain at home, are not allowed to be outside the boundaries of their homes unless they are en route to and from school. Furthermore, no one except a student or a person employed at a school may enter the school premises at any time. The official syllabus must be adhered to and no one is allowed to teach, address or speak to any students about any matter which does not form part of the syllabus or which has no bearing on tuition or normal school activities. (BBC 18.7.86)
When schools reopened on 14 July many were surrounded by police and soldiers. Although the DET reported high attendances from some areas, students at many schools in Soweto, the KwaNdebele bantustan, the East Rand and the Eastern Cape continued to boycott classes. Many students tore up registration forms or failed to hand them in after taking them home to 'fill in'. At some schools where students agreed to go to class, they refused to be issued with ID cards which they said they regarded as another form of the now-defunct pass. (GN/FT 15.7.86; WM 18.7.86)
UNIVERSITIES
After being closed since May following a prolonged student boycott, the University of Transkei reopened on 8 July. Thirteen students – most of them executive members of student bodies – had their registrations cancelled, leading to speculation that the boycott would be renewed. The original boycott had started over the expulsion of two students from the Transkei bantustan area earlier in the year. Seventy per cent of the students returned to lectures but another five per cent were sent home to ‘collect money for their fees’. (DD 8/10.7.86; WM 11.7.86)
