Comments on draft education bill to be considered
A task team consisting of officials from the basic education and provincial education departments is considering the comments that were received from the public on the controversial draft Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill to amend the South African Schools Act and the Employment of Educators Act.
The bill has been criticised for limiting the powers of school governing bodies in appointing school heads of departments, principals and their deputies.
The bill also specifies handing control to the department in determining a school’s language policy.
It caused a huge uproar in the education sector, with a petition being launched to lobby Parliament to reject it.
According to the petition the bill would “strip governing bodies of basically all decisionmaking powers regarding admission of learners, language of tuition and appointment of teaching staff”.
Some teachers’ unions raised concern about the proposal that the department be solely in charge of the process of promotions, saying this would be “undemocratic and dictatorial”.
Furthermore, it was not possible to have more than one language of instruction in schools because of a shortage of skilled teachers.
The Department of Basic Education has defended the proposed amendments, saying the ministerial task team that investigated allegations of the selling of posts by teacher unions and departmental officials recommended clipping the powers of school governing bodies.
It also recommended that appointments to posts from level two and above be taken away and the schools act and the Employment of Educators Act be amended to reflect this.
THE PROPOSED … AMENDMENT IS NECESSITATED BY THE REQUIREMENTS OF TRANSFORMATION
“The proposed education amendment is necessitated by the requirements of transformation and by the realisation of how important the leadership and management team is for turning a school around and making it successful,” Department of Basic Education acting chief director for legal and legislative services Chris Leukes said recently.
“The National Development Plan also played a role in the decision to propose the amendment. It emphasises the importance of attracting competent persons to become school principals,” he said.
Other amendments cover an increase in penalties for preventing compulsory school attendance, the language policy in public schools and a code of conduct on cultural beliefs and religious observance.