BASIC EDUCATION: INPUT SOUGHT ON LEARNER ADMISSION, SCHOOL CAPACITY REGULATORY PROPOSALS

BASIC EDUCATION: INPUT SOUGHT ON LEARNER ADMISSION, SCHOOL CAPACITY REGULATORY PROPOSALS

• 06 August 2025
• Education & Training
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 7 August 2025, the department issued a backdated media statement on the draft regulations, urging stakeholders to participate in the public consultation process.

The Department of Basic Education has gazetted two sets of draft regulations separately focusing on admissions to state runs schools and their capacity to accommodate learners. Input is sought by 5 September 2025.

Among other things, the draft regulations on school admissions seek to give practical effect to provisions in the 2024 Basic Education Laws Amendment Act making:

• a provincial head of department ‘responsible for co-ordinating learner admissions in … collaboration with school governing bodies, with the aim of ensuring that all eligible learners are accommodated timeously and effectively’, and
• requiring a school’s governing body drafting or amending an admission policy to consider various factors including:
  • ‘the best interests of learners, particularly the importance of equitable access and the removal of barriers to participation’
  • ‘the demographics and education needs of the surrounding community, including language preferences and the number of compulsory school-age learners’
  • ‘the availability and capacity of nearby schools’
  • ‘the resources and infrastructure available at the school’
  • ‘the school’s capacity as determined in accordance with applicable capacity regulations and norms and standards’, and
  • ‘any departmental plans for school development or expansion in the area.

Other issues covered in the draft regulations include:

• admission application documents
• learners who are:
  • not South African citizens and/or
  • undocumented
• Grade R admissions
• learner age-related matters
• refusing admission to a learner
• special education needs
• school zoning
• parental rights and obligations, and
• appeals.

The draft regulations on ‘ordinary’ school infrastructure seek to:

• ‘maximise the use of learning spaces’, and
• ‘ensure that all classrooms … are used effectively … thus safeguarding against overcrowding’.

To that end, they propose a comprehensive set of minimum norms and standards among other things dealing with:

• curriculum and subject offerings (including the extracurricular choices)
• the introduction of dual medium or parallel medium teaching and curriculum streaming
• ‘the improvement or maintenance of quality academic performance’
• the impact of additional learners on the ‘constitutionally protected’ right of all learners to ‘quality basic education’
• ‘the condition of ... classrooms, laboratories and other rooms or spaces used for teaching’
• ‘adequate ablution facilities’
• ‘the staff establishment’
• ‘space available for ... administrative needs and education support’
• classroom size, and
• ‘space required for sporting, cultural and recreational activities’.

This is noting that an ‘ordinary’ state run school is one not one:

• for learners with special education needs, or
• providing ‘education with a specialised focus on talent, including sport, performing arts or creative arts’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• draft regulations on school admissions
• draft regulations on school capacity
• 2024 Basic Education Laws Amendment Act

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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