INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROTECTION OF THE CHILD

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CHAPTER 3 INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROTECTION OF THE CHILD: A DOCUMENTARY STUDY

The problem with education is not in training children, but in the development of a community in which children can grow up to be democratic, intelligent, disciplined to freedom, relevant to the goals of life, and eager to share in the tasks of the age. Schools cannot produce the result; nothing but the community can do so (Hart 1924).

INTRODUCTION

As Salomone (2000:43-51) and Els (1998:37-42) argue, ideas about the child and his or her development through education have undergone substantial changes during each of the phases in human development, in particular concerning the rights and responsibilities of parents and children. The summary below is based on their accounts of the shifts that have occurred.
In ancient Greek society, children were sent away for formal education and apprenticeships from between the ages of twelve and seventeen ‘for the sake of the state and the community’ (Salomone 2000:43). A different understanding was however dominant during the Middle Ages. The child was now considered as an integral part of the family (Els 1998:38). As a result, children were ‘regarded as miniature adults with corresponding rights and responsibilities’ (Salomone 2000:43). Children almost became the assets of their parents. Girls were betrothed at an early age and lived in the home of their future husbands. Hence, children had to acquire life skills necessary for survival (Salomone 2000:43). From the time of the Renaissance, and particularly during the Reformation era, the idea emerged that children are ‘innocent and weak’ and therefore need to be ‘nourished and educated’. The ‘divine duty’ of parents to discipline their children, ‘during the imperfect state of childhood’ was highlighted by people like John Lock, Rousseau and John Stuart Mill. They also reiterated that the child can only hold autonomous rights on the grounds of capacity and reason, both of which they argued were only acquired when the child reached maturity (Salomone 2000:46). It was these ideas that formed the kernel of a new understanding that was beginning to take shape, namely that the child actually belongs to the state, and that the state can remove the child from the parents’ care. Under conditions of industrialisation, this notion was further developed. Until deep in the 18th century it was quite acceptable for the state to interfere in family matters, morals, religion, and so forth.
As the social momentum generated by the Renaissance led to rapid industrialisation, the industrial phase produced two distinct approaches to children and their development. In affluent families, the child was treated as a ‘treasure’. Whilst slaves did the work, children had to do parrot learning and were protected against any possible harm. Children from poor families, on the other hand, were treated as objects or implements with which work had to be undertaken to earn daily bread (Els 1998:33). Such children received no schooling and were taught survival skills by force.
The social implications of the latter development necessitated the intervention of the state to protect these children. Since the mid 1800s the idea of institutional care for abused and neglected children and juvenile delinquents started to win field and laws that support this kind of ‘protective’ thinking were passed. Legislation relating to compulsory education and child labour were developed, and a juvenile court system saw the light. At the same time, this technology phase brought with it such a variety of possible careers and specialist fields and learning opportunities, that parents could no longer provide all the necessary schooling or skills (Feinberg & Soltin 1998:21). This necessitated the state to intervene on another level and provide development opportunities including schooling. The view that the child was a valuable resource for society, informed the idea that the state should take over the education of children to prepare them for their services to society. Fortunate children were taught by many specialists and schools became centres for multi-disciplinary teaching and development. In South Africa, most black children remained in the subsistence phase during this time, with little or no formal schooling and only survival skills on which to depend.
We are at present in an electronic phase or a global phase. Toffler (1980:232) calls it the ‘high-speed revolution’ but there are numerous other words to describe this phase in which it has become possible to travel in cyberspace within seconds to almost any place in the world, or bring the world into your home. But, as in the pre-industrial phase, some are fortunate and others have to acquire life skills simply to survive. The fortunate ones comprise only a small proportion of the children of this country. Many children do not have parents to nurture, protect or develop them. They are again in need of basic care and – more than anything else – they need basic life skills to survive.
From the above discussion a number of observations can be made that are also pertinent to this study. The first of these is that education has been conceived as a response to a particular kind of need that exists in society. Second, the needs of society change over time, and are linked to development phases in human history. Third, the state and home (parents) are regarded as the two primary agencies responsible for the child’s development. Fourth, it is possible for a situation to develop where the state and home have conflicting interests and ideas about what needs to be done with the child. This leads to the fifth point, which is that the idea of education is closely linked to understandings about what kind of social being the child is. These understandings are influenced by the development of knowledge, but are also based on values and philosophy. Finally, ideas about the child and a child’s access to education are not only determined by the development phase in human history, but also by the child’s social position in that society.
A number of other questions arise from the discussion above and in the context of the importance of protecting, developing and enabling the child and the difficulties associated with realising this ideal in South Africa:

• Who is responsible for the protection, development and support of the child?
• What documents (protocols, legislation and policy frameworks) form the basis of our contemporary understanding of the nature of the child, which have given rise to children’s rights and an emphasis on the need to support, protect and develop children?
  • At what levels were these documents developed?
• What are the ideas purported in these documents, in particular in relation to the child’s right to protection, health and safety and education opportunity?
• How do these documents define the roles and responsibilities of parents, the community and the state in terms of the protection, development and support of the child, and therefore in the rendering of the required services?
• What are the rights and services that children in South Africa are entitled to and what is the foundation of these rights?
• What policies and strategies have been developed and which agencies and structures have been tasked with turning the rights of the child in South Africa into practice?

The first part of this chapter discusses various paradigms that exist on how responsibility for child protection and development should be negotiated between state and home, and situates the South African case in relation to these. The second part of the chapter is devoted to a discussion on the development of international policy documents, treaties and declarations that relate to the protection, development and support of the child. An attempt is made to indicate how the understandings that underpin these documents have changed over time and have been adapted in different contexts. The changes that have occurred are then linked to the paradigms. The third section examines the rights of the child in South Africa, with specific reference to the South African Constitution and the Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. The final section examines policy documents and frameworks that have been developed by different government departments as instruments for turning children’s rights in South Africa from lofty ideals into practice.

THE LOCUS OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROTECTION, DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF THE CHILD: FOUR PARADIGMS

Globally there have been mainly four legal perspectives on the responsibility of providing children their rights or providing basic services to the child (Els 1998:36). According to the traditional view, parents are held responsible for protecting their own children and seeing to it that the child has full access to his/her rights. This includes all aspects of the child’s development, from education, health and safety to a home, food and clothing.
The protective view, on the other hand, requires a regulatory and intervention role from society, and more specifically from the state. According to this view, the state is primarily and in the final instance responsible for the child and has to protect the child, and see to it that the child has access to necessary services. According to this view children will belong to the state and will be working for the state and therefore the state will decide on what the child needs.
The liberationist perspective is propagated for example by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC 1989). This perspective is characterised by its focus on the rights of children and the necessity to ensure that these rights are realised. It does therefore not stipulate who is ultimately responsible for doing that, but states that the child has the right to be cared for and to be protected – irrespective of who carries the responsibility. This is a child-centred view, which requires both parents and the state to play a role in realising these rights. June Sinclair (1998) states

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction
1.2. The context of the research problem
1.3. Discourse markers
1.4. Research aims and objectives
1.5. Research questions and hypotheses
1.6. Research method
1.7. Research procedure and instruments
1.8. The process of data analysis
1.9. Outline of chapters
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2. Introduction
2.2. Review of research into listening as a construct
2.3. Coherence, semantic cohesion and markers in discourse
2.4. The nature of perceived oral lecture comprehension difficulties
2.5. Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3. Introduction
3.2. Sampling of participants
3.3. Instruments
3.4. Research procedure
3.5. Statistical analysis
3.6. Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
4. Introduction
4.2. Hypotheses
4.3. Intervention programme
4.4. Conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION
5. Introduction
5.2. Implications of the findings
5.3. Contributions to SLA theory and research
5.4. Recommendations
5.5. Conclusion
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