Education Minister Naledi Pandor on Thursday told parliament the proposed school pledge would not be imposed, and apologised if she had created the wrong impression.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Pandor repeated that there would be public hearings and that the public would be able to make submissions on the pledge's wording.
However, she stressed that the final version would still refer to values, nation-building and personal commitment to the good of all.
The proposed pledge has elicited widespread debate since it was announced two weeks ago, with the ACDP, the FF Plus, civil rights movement AfriForum and individuals expressing opposition to the plan.
They claim the pledge will further divide the nation and not achieve social cohesion as intended.
Even former president FW de Klerk has entered the fray, suggesting that the pledge would make white children feel "morally inferior".
Trying to allay fears that the government had intended to impose the pledge in schools, Pandor said: "I must immediately apologise to the public for having apparently created the impression that the proposal would not be up for debate.
"Some commentators appear to believe that schools have been directed to implement a directive... What has been done is to indicate that we believe there should be a schools pledge."
Much of the criticism is aimed at the opening stanza, which reads: "We, the youth of South Africa, recognising the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered and sacrificed for justice and freedom."
Pandor said she could not understand objections to a phrase that is intended to recognise the country's past.
"They (critics) say this is the ANC forcing guilt on to their children - I agree with them that we should not burden children with the sins of their parents, but I disagree that learners should be denied knowledge of all our past," said Pandor.
FF Plus MP Pieter Groenewald launched a spirited attack on the pledge proposal.
He complained that, while the pledge borrows from the first three lines of the preamble to the constitution, it ignores the very next line, which reads: "Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity."
Groenewald said it was clear the minister believed members of the FF Plus to be ashamed of their past.
"I would like, very clearly, to say to the minister, not the minister or the whole of the ANC will make me feel ashamed of my past. I say to you, I am proud of my history. Minister, your true colours are showing.
"You want to institute the Pandor oath to indocrinate our children and to create a guilt complex in them..." said Groenewald.
The DA supports the initiative, but suggested that "credible experts" must drive the process, and not government.
DA MP Desiree van der Walt said the pledge was needed in order to instil in the youth a culture of "constitutionalism".
She also called for an extension of the 30-day period set aside for public hearings on the matter.
IFP MP Connie Zikalala said her party accepted the idea of introducing the school pledge, but warned that the wording should not be driven by party ideology.
Zikalala said the pledge must be based on social cohesion, nation-building and respect for human dignity.
ANC MP Shepherd Mayatula took a swipe at fellow-Christians, accusing a section of them of wanting to impose their "fundamentalist" values on everyone else.
He said SA was a secular state and everyone should be allowed their own form of religion, without being dictated to.