SASA – Chapter 2 (LEARNERS) Regulation 3 – Compulsory attendance.

3. Compulsory attendance.

(1) Subject to this Act and any applicable provincial law, every parent must cause every learner for whom he or she is responsible to attend a school from the first school day of the year in which such learner reaches the age of seven years until the last school day of the year in which such learner reaches the age of fifteen years or the ninth grade, whichever occurs first.

(2) The Minister must, by notice in the Government Gazette, determine the ages of compulsory attendance at school for learners with special education needs.

(3) Every Member of the Executive Council must ensure that there are enough school places so that every child who lives in his or her province can attend school as required by subsections (1) and (2).

(4) If a Member of the Executive Council cannot comply with subsection (3) because of a lack of capacity existing at the date of commencement of this Act, he or she must take steps to remedy any such lack of capacity as soon as possible and must make an annual report to the Minister on the progress achieved in doing so.

(5) If a learner who is subject to compulsory attendance in terms of subsection (1) is not enrolled at or fails to attend a school, the Head of Department may—

(a) investigate the circumstances of the learner’s absence from school;

SASAMS which is the Departnent of Basic Education’s Program for generating school reports for Educators, has evolved over the years to become an instrument for administering both the Management Functions of the SGB and the Education Functions of the Principal.

In the Learner Information Module, under the section where absentism has been recorded, a report will be generated for all learner’s who are absent for ten consecutive schooldays.

At the start of each school day when the SASAMS program is accessed, a warning will be issued that a learner/s has been absent for more than ten days consecutively.

(b) take appropriate measures to remedy the situation; and

The Phase Head or Grade Head as one of their responsibilities, will be to monitor the absences from school of learner’s during the week. SASAMS allows teachers or grade heads to record these absences as well the reason for being absent.

(c) failing such a remedy, issue a written notice to the parent of the learner requiring compliance with subsection (1).

If this process has been followed and patterns of absenteeism been established, if and when the parent has failed to communicate with the school, could be reported to Social Services.

(6) Subject to this Act and any other applicable law—

(a) any parent who, without just cause and after a written notice from the Head of Department, fails to comply with subsection (1), is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months; or

(b) any other person who, without just cause, prevents a learner who is subject to compulsory attendance from attending a school, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.

The suspension and or expulsion of learner’s could be challenge in a court of law as it could be argued that their right to an Education has been infringed on.

The importance of following internal as well as external procedures cannot be stressed enough.