BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL: NCOP COMMITTEE CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL: NCOP COMMITTEE CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

• 27 November 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 16 January 2024, the NCOP committee concerned issued a media statement extending the deadline for submissions to 31 January 2024.

In anticipation of parliamentary hearings next year on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill’s ‘B’ version, the NCOP Committee on Education, Technology & Sports, and Arts & Culture has called for written submissions by 19 January 2024.

As SA Legal Academy has regularly reported, among other things the Bill seeks to:

• make Grade R the compulsory school-starting age
• penalise corporal punishment at schools
• require the language policy of a government school to take into consideration the language needs of the broader community
• make it mandatory to register any learner receiving home schooling
• lay the foundation for more strictly regulating liquor possession, sale and consumption on government school premises.
• introduce financial and public accountability frameworks for governing bodies and provincial departments, and
• improve the admissions policy implementation system affecting undocumented learners.

Tabled in Parliament in January 2022, the Bill has already been the focus of nationwide public hearings held by the National Assembly’s Basic Education Committee. As a section 76 piece of legislation affecting the provinces, it must nevertheless also be subjected to hearings by each provincial legislature.

• Bill’s ‘B’ version
• committee notice

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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