RCL responsibilities

In the learning environment, responsibilities are just as important as rights. While rights provide individuals with certain freedoms and entitlements, responsibilities ensure that these rights are exercised responsibly and ethically. Having responsibilities as a learner means recognising the role you play in your own education and respecting the learning environment.

RCL members also have both rights and responsibilities. They have the right to share their ideas, opinions and concerns with the SGB. However, they also have responsibilities to fulfil. These include being good role models for their peers, promoting respect and discipline among learners, organising events and activities that benefit the learner community, and communicating effectively between learners and school staff. By having responsibilities, RCL members actively contribute to the betterment of their schools.

After 1994, democracy was established at all levels in our society. In schools, school governing bodies (SGB) were set up to ensure that every part of the school community has a say in how to develop the school, and how to improve learning and teaching.

Learners’ organisations were also given formal legal status for the first time. The South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996) states that a representative council of learners (RCL) should be set up to represent the interests of learners in every government (public) school that has learners from Grade 8 and up.

An RCL is not a prefect body; it is a democratically elected representative body of learners, and it should represent the learners’ interests and consult them on issues concerning them.

Every school must elect an RCL. All learners have a vote and every class elects two representatives to the RCL – one male and one female. In a single-sex school, each class has one representative.

The RCL elects an executive, which is made up of a president, deputy president, secretary and treasurer. Subcommittees can be set up to deal with projects and programmes.

The RCL represents learners on the SGB by electing two members to the SGB – one of these members should be the RCL president. The RCL also works with the principal and school management team to develop the school and its programmes.