The Supreme Court of Appeal this morning effected that a governing body of a school has the exclusive power to determine the language policy of an existing school. It overruled a decision by the Pretoria High Court. The Mpumalanga Education Department had no accommodation in the Ermelo area for learners to be taught in English.

The head of department withdrew the function of the governing body of the Ermelo High School to determine the language policy of the school and appointed an interim committee to change the policy from an Afrikaans medium to a parallel medium school. But today the Supreme Court of Appeal found that the head of department was not authorised to do so in terms of the Schools Act and violated the principles of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act.

The Federation of School Governing Bodies (Fedsas) has welcomed the judgment by the court in favour of the High School Ermelo and its school governing body that the school should become an Afrikaans single medium school.

Fedsas National Operational officer, Jaco Deacon, says this judgment is significant for education in South Africa and specifically the role of Afrikaans. He says the powers of school governing bodies are reinstated and the government can therefore not interfere in the decisions of school governing bodies unless there are special circumstances. A school governing body can therefore determine which language can be taught at a public school.