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<a href="http://citizen.co.za/392087/lesufi-contests-language-judgment/" title="Link to Lesufi contests language judgment">
Lesufi contests language judgment </a>
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Batlile Phaladi </div>
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<img src="http://citizen.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2014/07/00029886-526x400.jpg?091c3b" alt="FILE PICTURE: Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA">
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FILE PICTURE: Gauteng Education MEC
Panyaza Lesufi. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA </div>
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After losing a legal battle over converting
single-medium schools to parallel-medium schools, Gauteng education MEC
Panyaza Lesufi is considering his options. </h2>
<p>He will contest a court ruling that favoured the
Federation of Governing bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas). Lesufi
said no child could be denied quality education “purely because the
school uses a different language or she is speaking a different
language”.</p>
<p>The department “respected the judge’s decision”, but he believed
another court could come to a different decision. This followed a
judgment by Judge Gregory Wright at the South Gauteng High Court in
Johannesburg on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Lesufi said the department was of the view the case brought by Fedsas
was flawed and motivated by “concerns that do not accord with our
constitution as well as the regulatory framework governing education
and, particularly, access to education in our new democracy”.</p>
<p>Fedsas brought an urgent application last week to stop the education
department from “interfering with schools’ language policy and
admissions”. The department had announced 124 single-medium schools
would be converted to parallel-medium schools.</p>
<p>In an affidavit, Fedsas accused the department of taking the decision
without prior consultation and without legal or factual basis. But
Lesufi reiterated no school should exclude a learner on the basis of
language.</p>
<p>“The right to education is one of the most fundamental rights in the
constitution and if any school, when applying its language and admission
policy, acts contrary to the constitution, that policy must be
disregarded,” said Lesufi.</p><p><a href="http://citizen.co.za/392087/lesufi-contests-language-judgment/">http://citizen.co.za/392087/lesufi-contests-language-judgment/</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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