Botha Gives S. African Officials Authority to Impose New Curbs on Black Schools

President Pieter W. Botha gave South African education officials increased authority Monday to impose stricter controls on the country’s black schools.

The step was aimed at ending long-running class boycotts and preventing the introduction of an alternative “people’s education” program by anti-apartheid activists.

The new regulations, issued under South Africa’s six-month-old national state of emergency, give education officials total and unchallengeable control over the country’s 7,500 urban black schools and their 1.8 million students. They provides for imprisonment of up to two years for anyone convicted of violating the rules the officials draw up.

The director general of the Department of Education and Training, which operates the urban black schools, is also authorized to stop the introduction of the “people’s education” program planned by activists to supplement and “correct” the material taught in the department’s courses.

Extension of Powers

The new measures, broadening regulations issued six months ago, effectively extend the government’s martial-law powers into the classroom, giving school administrators much the same authority to rule by decree that police and military commanders were given earlier on a community-wide basis.

The school regulations are the latest in a series of moves by the government in the last three weeks to curb political violence and to silence groups considered revolutionary. On Dec. 11, Botha tightened press restrictions that forbid, among other things, making “subversive statements” that incite school boycotts or publishing reports on the organization or success of such boycotts.

(This story has been written to comply with those press restrictions, which also prohibit the reporting of any civil unrest, or security force actions to deal with it, unless officially authorized.)

Jaap Strydom, the acting director general of education and training, defended the government’s new action as necessary to “create a healthy climate in all schools for the presentation of an effective and uninterrupted education” after more than two years of student protests, which have been at the heart of the unrest here.

‘Calm, Good Discipline’

“The vast majority of parents and pupils place a high premium on education and are anxious that calm and good discipline be maintained,” Strydom said.

He argued that school officials need the increased authority to prevent students from being “intimidated” and classes from being “disrupted or disturbed” by militants.

“It cannot be allowed that pupils be prevented from attending school, writing important examinations or that they be molested or physically harmed in any way,” Strydom added.

Although one of its goals is to keep students in class, the government’s action cast doubt on the success of a growing movement within the black community to persuade students to end boycotts and return to class at the start of the new school year Jan. 7.

That call, first made by church leaders, was strongly endorsed Monday by the United Democratic Front, a coalition of more than 700 anti-apartheid groups, and the National Education Crisis Committee, which has been working for a year to resolve the strife in the country’s black schools and to improve the quality of education they offer.

Remedial Courses

The success of the effort will depend in large part, black educators believe, on the “people’s education” courses they are able to provide on an unofficial basis. While most of the courses are largely intended to be remedial, making up for time lost over the last two years and filling other gaps in regular school courses, some are clearly political, meant to be “more meaningful, more critical and more democratic.” They could be prohibited by education authorities under the new regulations.

Strydom gave his assurance “as a professional educator,” however, that “any orders or instructions that may be issued in terms of these emergency regulations will have the promotion of education as their sole aim and will be primarily in the interest of pupils and parents.”

But those involved in compiling the high school literature and history courses in the alternative education program expressed concern Monday that the effect of the new regulations would be either to censor their materials or proscribe them entirely.

“They may let us teach algebra and geography,” a prominent black educator said, asking not to be quoted by name, “but literature, history, our own African languages--no, I doubt it.”

‘People’s English’

The proposed history course, for example, would use the now-unbanned writings of Nelson Mandela, imprisoned leader of the African National Congress, and other black nationalists to give students a sense of their own history as well as that of the country’s white settlers. An English course entitled “People’s English for People’s Power” proposes extensive political discussions on “what we are struggling for, what we are struggling against and how the struggle is to be conducted.”

Murphy Morobe, spokesman for the United Democratic Front, said his organization was convinced nonetheless that “wherever and whenever possible, students have to be at school all the time” and that the prolonged class boycotts must be ended.

“A return to class will help the struggle for a democratic education system in the long run,” Morobe said, reflecting the view of most activists that not only must black students continue with their education, but also that schools are the best centers around which to organize the students for effective protests.

Eric Molobi, spokesman for the National Education Crisis Committee, many leaders of which have been detained in recent weeks, added there is “a wide consensus” in the black community, among students, parents and teachers, for a return to class.

Talks on Grievances

Morobe and Molobi both warned, however, that the success of their groups’ efforts would depend on the government’s willingness to negotiate on a long list of outstanding grievances, including the release of political detainees, the reopening of more than 70 black schools closed in recent months and further reforms of the education system.

Although the closings affect only a tiny fraction of black high schools, they have been widely decried here. Ken Hartshorne, a specialist on black education, suggested Monday that the government is rapidly losing control of the black school system, that officials are unable to enter many schools and that little learning is taking place at those continuing to operate.

“Teachers are demoralized, and pupils are restless and disturbed by events,” Hartshorne said in the latest issue of the respected quarterly Indicator South Africa. “Regular learning habits are breaking down, pupils do not bring their books to school and they are not prepared to do homework or have their work evaluated by means of tests or exams.”

Although the Department of Education and Training boasts that attendance at nearly 90% of its schools had returned to “normal levels” in November, Hartshorne observed that “the physical presence of pupils at schools is no guarantee that learning is taking place in spite of efforts to enforce it by the presence of troops and police.”