Private school associations are outraged over a legal opinion declaring that three different curricula offered by 517 independent schools to almost 37 000 pupils are illegal, reports The Sunday Independent.

The Office of the Chief State Law Adviser stated in a 13-page legal opinion that schools following a curriculum other than the national curriculum statement were breaking the law.

Those not following the government’s prescribed curriculum and assessment policy statements (Caps) curriculum include 195 Montessori and 47 Waldorf schools and 275 institutions offering the Accelerated Christian Education programme.

But providers of the alternative curricula are vehemently opposed to exclusively offering the Caps curriculum to pupils from grade R, saying it is too rigid and prescribes the content that must be taught.

A protracted dispute between the National Alliance of Independent Schools Associations (Naisa) representing the affected schools and quality assurer Umalusi forced the Department of Basic Education to appoint mediators to resolve the impasse.

Naisa chair Mandla Mthembu told Mweli and the heads of the nine provincial education departments at a meeting last month that Waldorf schools had been told they would lose their examination centre status if they did not change their curriculum.

He said thousands of pupils would be left stranded if alternative curricula were declared illegal.

Full report in The Sunday Independent