The Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) bill is arguably one of the most contentious pieces of proposed legislation before parliament.
Gazetted in October 2017, it seeks to amend the South African Schools Act (Sasa) and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA), to align them with developments in the education landscape.
The Bela bill was introduced in parliament in December last year. It was referred to the portfolio committee on basic education for consideration. The public was invited to make written submissions from May 1 to June 15, and the deadline was extended to August 15. About 18,000 written submissions were received.
Three rounds of oral hearings on the bill have been completed, with the fourth round scheduled for Tuesday.
The bill includes a host of proposed amendments to the Sasa and EEA, which have been welcomed by some organisations and rejected outright by most others.
One of the welcome amendments is making school attendance compulsory from grade R instead of grade 1. The bill also proposes increasing the term of imprisonment from six to 12 months for parents who fail to send children, who are subject to compulsory attendance, to school.
Another clause proposes all members of a governing body must disclose their financial interests and those of their partners, spouses and immediate family members annually.
The definition of corporal punishment is widened to include a ban on corporal punishment during a school activity or in a hostel.
But the proposed clauses that drew the most criticism concerned schools’ admission and language policies.
The bill states the head of a provincial education department, after consultation with the governing body of a school, has the final authority to admit a pupil to a public school.
It proposes that the governing body submit for approval the language policy of a public school and any amendment to the head of department.
Another clause seeks to give the head of department the power to direct a public school to adopt more than one language of instruction.
Many organisations, as well as members of the public, are adamant that the proposed amendments to schools’ admission and language policies give heads of department too much power and dilute the powers of governing bodies.
AfriForum said the governing body was the most appropriate stakeholder to determine its school’s admission policy based on its grassroots knowledge of the community, the circumstances of the school, its capacity and available resources.
It said several of the proposed amendments “threaten the success and optimal functioning of public schools” and, if implemented, “could discourage parents from being involved and assuming responsibility for the organisation, governance and funding of schools in partnership with the state”.
Trade union Solidarity was of the opinion that the amendments were “an attack on functional schools, especially schools within the Afrikaans community, which have been successfully governed by governing bodies”.
The Federation of Governing Bodies of SA Schools (Fedsas) had serious reservations about the head of department having the final say to admit a pupil to a public school.
Fedsas said the proposed amendment that the governing body must submit the admission policy to the head of department for approval “is in conflict with the scheme of Sasa which envisages a co-operative partnership between the governing body and the head of department”.
On the other hand, the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), which represents 264,000 teachers, said they noted many schools deny pupils access through their admission policies.
The union said people employed as domestic workers, who might be staying with their children in an area of a former Model C school, are unlikely to gain admission mainly due to financial constraints.
There have been many anecdotal accounts of children being denied admission to especially former Model C schools. Some of them unscrupulously reject applications for enrolment after determining that parents may not be able to pay school fees. So allowing the head of department to have final authority over pupil admissions may not be a bad thing at all.
The government also deserves applause for making schooling compulsory from grade R.
The government would do well to carefully consider each and every oral and written submission with our children’s interests at heart. When this bill eventually becomes law, it will undoubtedly be a defining moment in the basic education sector.
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