BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT ACT: SLOW PROGRESS WITH REGULATIONS

BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT ACT: SLOW PROGRESS WITH REGULATIONS

• 09 July 2025
• Education & Training
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Basic Education and Minister Siviwe Gwarube came under fire during a recent meeting of the National Assembly’s Basic Education Committee for their role in ‘delaying the drafting of regulations’ under the controversial 2024 Basic Education Laws Amendment Act. According to a committee media statement on the meeting, members are especially concerned about the process of developing regulations to implement the Act’s ‘two (most) contentious sections’:

• section 4 (amending the principal statute’s section 5 on state-run school admission policy), and
• section 5 (amending the principal statute’s section 6 on state-run school language policy).

Apparently, draft regulations were expected to be ready for public comment by ‘the end of June 2025’. However, of the 10 regulations envisaged only two are ‘at an advanced stage and therefore ‘nearly complete’ – being with the Office of the Chief State Law Advisor for scrutiny.

Meanwhile, ‘draft guidelines’ have been issued with the intention of assisting provincial departments of education in their efforts to implement the amendment Act. However, the statement tends to point to differences in opinion among key stakeholders about:

• the Minister’s powers to issue guidelines in the first place
• the extent to which the Minister is perceived to have succumbed to ‘outside influence’ in that regard, and
• a revised version of ‘the admissions part of the guidelines’ perceived not to be in line with sections of the South African Schools Act dealing with provincial ‘administrative powers’.

Both the statement itself and a presentation document circulated at the meeting also point to challenges likely to stand in the way of introducing Grade R at all state-run schools. Pivotal to these is a shortage of suitably qualified teachers.

• media statement
• Act
• presentation document

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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