Why court bid over teacher bursaries failed
Solidarity Helping Hand sought declaratory order
The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed Solidarity Helping Hand’s challenge to the Department of Basic Education’s Funza Lushaka bursary scheme for trainee teachers, which the organisation had argued discriminated against white students. The bursary scheme was established in 2007 to support students studying for a bachelor’s degree or a postgraduate certificate in education. It gives preference to students who intend to specialise in teaching the foundation phase of primary school in an indigenous African language, are from rural areas and intend to teach in rural areas, and are willing to commit to teaching at a public school. Solidarity Helping Hand, which has its own bursary project, and third-year Cape Peninsula University of Technology Student Danel Venter sought a declaratory order that the selection criteria were unconstitutional. It argued that the criteria discriminated against white students in violation of section 9 of the Constitution because most white students neither...
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