The Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill has elicited strong opposition among the stakeholders who have made written submissions to parliament, with the majority of inputs entirely rejecting the government’s proposed reforms, MPs heard on Tuesday.
The bill proposes wide-ranging changes to the 1996 SA Schools Act and the 1998 Employment of Educators Act, including new powers for provincial heads of education that enable them to override school governing bodies’ language and admission policies.
The bill proposes making school compulsory from grade R instead of grade 1, sets jail terms of up to a year for parents who do not send their children to school, and allows alcohol to be sold on school premises for fundraising activities.
The bill was submitted to parliament in December 2021 and tagged as a section 76 bill, which means it will be processed by both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on education called for written submissions on May 15, with a one-month deadline for comment, which was later extended to August 15.
It received more than 18,000 written submissions. Of the 3,504 assessed to date, 3,138 were totally opposed to the bill, 190 partially supported it, 35 gave it complete support and
141 did not specify their position, the committee’s content
adviser, Portia Mbude-Mutshekwane said.
She cautioned MPs against drawing conclusions about public opinion, saying the submissions reflect only the views of people who have the capacity to organise themselves to make written input.
“It is still premature to come to a conclusive argument that the majority of people are opposed to the bill ... people who don’t have access to means of making submissions have not yet come forward to cast their responses. Stakeholder groups such as Pestalozzi and Dear Bela SA submitted bulk emails with similar views that reject the bill in its entirety,” she said.
Language policy
A large number of submissions were received in opposition to the bill’s provisions limiting the powers of school governing bodies to determine a school’s language policy.
While some submissions supported the sale of alcohol on school premises for fundraising purposes, strong opposition was voiced by parents and teachers from Limpopo and Gauteng, as well as faith-based organisations, she said.
A large number of submissions objected to the proposal that members of school governing bodies be required to disclose their financial interests, as well as those of their partners and close family members. Objectors said the rationale for these measures is unclear and they represent an unreasonable invasion of privacy
The committee will begin hearing oral submissions on the bill on November 8.
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