The reopening of schools in South Africa has brought to the fore the need for a finalised National Guideline on School Uniforms that employs a human rights perspective and approach in order to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) learners from bullying and deprivation of equal access to education.
Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) spokesperson Javu Baloyi said they welcome this approach, however it lacks the human rights approach.
“We wish to congratulate the department for employing an approach that centres on accessibility and affordability. However, the lack of a human rights approach does little to address the homophobic environment within South African schools. Homophobia in South African schools can no longer be tolerated and ignored,” said Baloyi.
According to reports, occurrences of homophobic bullying are rampant in South African schools.
In the previous years it was reported that a 17-year-old learner was subjected to bullying in the form of name-calling and was told by a teacher that same-sex marriages were evil and “those people must be killed”. The learner subsequently dropped out of school.
In another incident a 14-year-old lesbian learner at a Western Cape school was made to sit in the foyer of the administration building for several days after defying an order to wear a dress instead of trousers. Another learner, 12, from Mpumalanga was turned away from school because her haircut “made her look like a lesbian”.
Baloyi said studies have shown that South African schools are still sites of social and gender discrimination and exclusion impacting on access to education for LGBTI learners.
“The existing Draft National Guidelines on School Uniforms do not address this issue adequately. Unfortunately, the existing draft guidelines continue to reinforce sexist and discriminatory separation of ’girls and boys’ leaving little room for LGBTI students being able to wear uniforms that fit with their gender expression,” he said.
The CGE is therefore calling upon the Department of Basic Education to redraft the existing guidelines to accord with the rights to human dignity, the right to education and freedom of expression.