BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL UPDATE

BASIC EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL UPDATE

• 14 September 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 27 September 2023, the committee issued a third media statement confirming its adoption of the Bill. However, the revised version and accompanying committee report have yet to be tabled in the House for a second reading.

On 14 September 2023, the committee issued a second media statement clarifying issues apparently misreported elsewhere. The report below accurately reflects what was agreed, which the second media statement confirms. There has been no need to alter its contents.

According to a media statement recently issued by the National Assembly’s Basic Education Committee, it has concluded its work on a controversial amendment Bill among other things affecting language policy at state-run schools, as well as home schooling.

The statement was posted so late on Parliament’s website that it spent very little time on the home page, having been overtaken by other events and quickly relegated to the day’s archives.

Informed by input during public hearings, the following changes have been made to the tabled Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill:

• when determining a school’s language policy, its governing body will be required to consider ‘the language needs of the broader community’
• a school’s language policy and any amendments to it will require the approval of the provincial head of department
• after consultation with a school’s governing body, the provincial head of department will have ‘the final authority to admit a learner’ to that school, and
• while it will be mandatory to register any learner receiving home schooling, prerequisites will not necessarily include a pre-registration site visit.

Some amendments in the tabled Bill have apparently been scrapped, including:

• those dealing with the sale of alcohol on school premises after hours, and
• the disclosure of school governing body members’ financial interests, along with those of their spouses, partners and immediate families (considered to be too onerous).

Once passed by the House, the Bill will be sent to the NCOP for concurrence. Being a section 76 Bill affecting the provinces, it will then be subjected to another round of public hearings.

When enacted and operationalised, the amendments will also:

• make Grade R the new compulsory school-starting age
• penalise parents or guardians ‘who do not ensure their children are in school’, and
• strengthen existing provisions prohibiting corporal punishment by making it an offence with ‘penalties for those found guilty’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• media statement
• Bill (as originally tabled)
• proposed amendments (please note, this is a draft document that may have been changed)
• draft committee report on the process (please note, this may have been changed)
• matrix of written and oral submissions during public hearings

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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