Dubbed The End of Model C Schools as We Know Them? will take part at Blue Lecture Theatre in Grahamstown at 2pm. This is the Think Fest programme of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival now underway in the city.

Presented by the Legal Resources Centre, the debate is aimed at taking a view at the impact that former Model C schools have in South Africa's education.

The centre's communication officer Khumbulani Mpofu said: "Model C schools are public schools, which find themselves under enormous pressure over the number of children applying to be admitted, the number of children that the government would like them to accommodate, and various judgements and regulations impacting on their autonomy."

Mpofu said the discussion would take recent cases and government regulations as their starting point in this discussion on the state of education.

Speakers include Jonathan Godden an education consultant, Eusebius McKaiser, a political analyst, and David Sewry from Rhodes University.

Godden is a former superintendent-general of the Eastern Cape department of education. He is now working as an education consultant in the Eastern Cape, while McKaiser is also an associate at the Wits Centre for Ethics. He writes widely in the local and international press on political and ethical debates.

Sewry is professor of information systems and dean of the faculty of commerce at Rhodes University. He has also served on a number of school governing bodies.

There is an entrance fee of R25 payable if one is interested in being part of the discussion.

Sithandiwe Velaphi

The New Age