Street children and access to education as a basic right

Abstract

The most powerful weapon that can be utilized to change the world is education. These remarkable words by Nelson Mandela can serve as a benchmark by which South Africa can assess whether children's rights, particularly the right to basic education, are progressively being realized. It seems like South Africa is still struggling to achieve this goal. This is particularly so for street children, a growing and increasingly marginalized group. Street children have a right to a decent education, to be knowledgeable citizens with inalienable rights to play and grow. However, South Africa sees street children as more used to working than studying. They also face numerous societal, practical and health barriers. They are among the millions of the world's hardest-to-reach children, not attending mainstream schools. This paper aims to understand whether street children benefit from the efforts by government towards inclusive and quality education for all. It draws from the ongoing collection of PhD data from street children in the North-West province during COVID19. All (100%) of street children who formed part of that study are not schooling. Most of them dropped out of school when they were in grade 7 and below. The question then arises: to what extent can South Africa be proud of having achieved the noble goal of providing primary education, after more than two decades of democracy? The aim is therefore to explore the extent to which various government Departments can ensure that street children have equal access to education as much as any other children do have such access, which could ultimately assist in eradicating the street children phenomenon.