Abstract
M.Ed.
The world is currently in the grip of educational dilemmas of massive
proportions. As a result of these various educational reform
initiatives have been launched all seeking to remedy the ills in
international public school systems.
One of the reforms of this century is the establishment of evangelically
Christian private schools.
The research eminates from the confusion which is prevalent in South
Africa with regards to what "Christian" education really is. White
public schools are legislated to provide so-called "Christian"
education; whilst evangelically Christian private schools claim they
provide truly Christian education. There exists a need to distinguish
between these two types of educational provision. This can only be done
successfully, if the nature of each is scrutinised: it should provide
the clue as to the reason why evangelically Christian private schools
have increased with such urgency over the past few years.
The primary purpose of this research is to discuss education from both a
biblical and state perspective. In doing this the factors 'determining
the founding of evangelically Christian private schools will be
determined.
Three fundamental structural elements of a Christian educational
philosophy have been isolated into a model: these are the metaphysical,
axiological and epistemological perspectives.
The metaphysical foundation demands that education in order to be truly
Christian, must be Christ-centred, evangelical and meta-cultural.