Education pre-Bill consultations end
THE Education Draft Bill, which is set to align the current legislation with the new Constitution, is set to be completed at the end of this month after the pre-Bill stage consultations were completed on Friday last week in Manicaland.
The consultations, which began in November in Bulawayo, moved to Harare before spreading to the other provinces, encompassed topical issues such as corporal punishment and the administration of discipline.
Most guardians and children who participated in the consultations agreed that detention of pupils should be the legalised form of punishment.
The definition of basic Statefunded education, which arises from Section 75 of the Constitution, also raised debate as participants struggled to define what basic education meant.
Other issues raised were the non-exclusion of learners who would not have paid school fees, financing of education for those who cannot afford and non-discrimination in schools.
The consultations follow pronouncement by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa that out of 396 Acts in the country’s statute books, 206 required alignment at the inception of the new Constitution.
The Centre for Applied Legal Research (CALR) representatives, who are supporting the programme after getting $3 million funding from the European Union to assist Government in the constitutional re-alignment process, said the Education Amendment Bill will remove contentious issues bedevilling the education sector.
Primary and Secondary Education ministry legal advisor Mrs Pemberai Murehwa said the prebudget consultations were a way of involving all stakeholders.
“At this pre-Bill stage, we are expecting that by end of February, we would have consolidated the stakeholders inputs and be able to come up with what we will propose in the draft bill,” she said.
Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs acting state counsel, Mr Kingston Magaya, said the education sector had gone through various changes over the years and the Bill will reflect such changes.
He said they expected the Fourth Session of the Eighth Parliament to pass the Education Amendment Bill.
“The Education Act is now anachronistic and some of its provisions are no longer in tandem with the new Constitution, hence it is due for alignment,” he said.
“Before amendments of such a crucial law that has got an impact on the social rights of learners, there is an imperative need to consult all relevant stakeholders, as this is in keeping with our deep seated democratic principles of seeking the general public’s validation of public policies and laws before adoption.”