| Summary: | Collective bargaining within public education and limited confidence in the arbitration process has resulted in strike action by educators with adverse consequences on learners. The right to basic education is fundamental and of national importance. Depriving a society the right to basic education is tantamount to depriving them of their human dignity; hence their human right. However, the learner's passive right to basic education is seemingly in conflict with the educator's active right to strike action and freedom to associate. In reconciling these conflicting constitutional rights, this mini-dissertation argues that basic education should be designated as minimum service within essential services. Relying on international and domestic legal instruments, case law and academic literature, this dissertation justifies the need to persuade the Essential Services Committee (ESC) to recommend designating basic education as essential service to parliament. This should be based on negotiations and recommendations between the government and educator's trade union to recommend designating basic education as essential service. This, however, will be contingent on the imperative to ensure certainty and credibility in the dispute resolution mechanisms where collective bargaining fails. This dissertation further recommends the need to strengthen the processes of conciliation, mediation and arbitration and also ensure compliance with compulsory arbitration awards, as a formidable measure to balance both the rights of the educator (freedom of association) and the learner to basic education in South Africa.
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