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BELA ACT: GNU CLEARING HOUSE ESTABLISHES TEAM TO RECOMMEND WAY FORWARD
- 31 October 2024
- Education & Training
- SA Legal Academy
A ‘small team’ appointed to work on contentious clauses in the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, 2024, has two weeks to find consensus on a way forward. The Presidency announced this in a media statement on the most recent meeting of the Government of National Unity’s (GNU’s) clearing house mechanism, which is responsible for resolving differences between signatories to the GNU Statement of Intent.
According to the Presidency statement, the team will focus on ‘two clauses’. Dealing with school-specific language and admission policies, these clauses were identified on 13 September 2024 in a speech delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the ceremony at which he signed the Bill concerned into law. At the time, parties to the GNU were given three months to ‘make proposals on how the(ir) different views may be accommodated’. Should no agreement be reached, the provisions concerned will be implemented as they now stand.
As SA Legal Academy has regularly reported, once operationalised the Act will, among other things:
- make Grade R the new compulsory school-starting age
- require the governing body of a state-run school to consider ‘the language needs of the broader community’ when determining a school’s language policy
- strengthen the powers of provincial heads of department regarding the admission of learners
- make it mandatory to register any learner receiving home schooling
- 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’.
The statement includes the names of members of the team appointed to address issues identified by the President.
- media statement
- President’s speech
- Act
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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