Bela Bill is disempowering

THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal has voted against the Bela Bill.

It would lead to a decline in education standards in the province while disempowering schools and placing control in the wrong hands.

Our reservations over the bill have been echoed by a large number of stakeholders, with just over 5 400 online submissions and an overwhelming majority rejecting the bill.

Submissions show it has largely been rejected due to clauses relating to home-schooling, admission and language policies, proposed regulations on management of learner pregnancy and compulsory school attendance at age 6.

We remain opposed to the Bela Bill for the following reasons: Admission policies which disempower school governing bodies (SGBs) from determining school admission policies and centralise this responsibility to heads of provincial departments giving them excessive powers. Language policies that centralise school language policies to HODs, further disempowering SGBs and disenfranchising mother tongue education. Centralisation of power with the bill deciding how SGBs operate and are elected and giving provincial departments excessive veto authority.

Regulations on home-schooling that seek to regulate the sector, giving the minister wide-ranging powers to do so. Unfunded, mandatory Grade R for all learners, without allocating the necessary funding and resources. The DA supports the wider inclusion of Grade R but this must be fully accounted for so that it does not affect other, crucial programmes.

The Bela Bill also fails to properly accommodate blended and online learning, or provide the appropriate mechanisms for learner registrations, inspections of premises and assessments.

DR IMRAN KEEKA, MPL DA spokesperson on Education in KwaZulu-Natal