The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) has not satisfactorily addressed key failures of the disastrous Basic Education Law Amendments (BELA) Bill, while committee votes that changed based on the current amendments is also of significant concern.
While the NCOP saw fit to make minor alterations, the BELA Bill still represents a serious threat to the rights of parents, educators, and learners and will still result in a multi-billion Rand fiscal disaster if implemented.
Changes to clauses 2, 4, and 5 – which deal with the implementation of mandatory Grade R and language and admissions policies respectively – also do not adequately address the very real public concerns expressed in almost 6 000 submissions received by the committee.
In particular, the new version of the BELA Bill would still unreasonably take power away from parents and educators and centralise it in the hands of unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats in Pretoria.
Furthermore, there is still no answer as to how the Bill will be costed and funded from either National Treasury or the Department of Basic Education. This means that each province would still be liable for more than R2 billion each, per year, to implement BELA. Given KZN’s Department of Education (DoE) current financial mess, it would be a miracle if it could pay teachers and provide transport to learners in the coming months – let alone finance the BELA Bill.
Public participation cannot be excluded when introducing legislation and for it to be meaningful and proper, every reasonable and painstaking effort should have been taken to ensure maximum participation. Regrettably, this has not been the case with the BELA Bill.
In addition to the inadequate changes, several clauses including Clause 35 – which places major restrictions on parents’ ability to home-school their children – remain unchanged. Other problematic areas include Clauses 15, 17, 22, and 50 – all of which exist for no other reason than to give the national Minister of Education almost unfettered power over schooling in South Africa.
The views of thousands of people who participated – albeit in a severely flawed public participation process – have been ignored. BELA is a destructive and undemocratic piece of legislation which stands to give the national Minister of Education the power to override parents and educators on a whim. The Bill also stands to cost the taxpayer almost R18billion, even without including several uncosted expenses.
This Bill is an afront to the futures of our children. On 29 May, the people of KZN will have the opportunity to reject the ANC and its BELA Bill. They will have the opportunity to rescue our province from a broken Taliban faction ANC government and install a DA-led government that puts their children first.
In contrast to BELA, the DA has workable, evidence-based proposals to improve basic learning. These include;
- Ensuring that learners receive 210 full teaching days, including two hours of reading and writing and an hour of Maths each day
- Improving quality and access to Grade R and providing the necessary resources and funding
- Improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) to ensure that learners are globally competitive and aligned
- Furthering internet access for schools for multifaceted learning
- Defending the right to constitutionally recognized mother tongue education, which has also shown to improve learner comprehension
- Testing teacher competence and ensuring quality teacher training
- Tailor-making interventions for schools, specific to core issues
- Reducing dropout rates to ensure every child receives basic education in a diversified curriculum that will allow them to acquire skills to participate in the economy and;
- Exploring alternative building models to eradicate dangerous infrastructure and build more classrooms and schools faster.
Should BELA become law, the DA will not hesitate to proceed with court action, primarily based on the violation of the Constitution and the Schools Act.
This Bill is an afront to the futures of our children. On 29 May, the people of KZN will have the opportunity to reject the ANC and its BELA Bill at the polls. They will have the opportunity to rescue our province from a broken Taliban faction ANC government and install a DA-led government that puts their children first.