Opposition to Bela bill not informed by reality nor merit

The National Council of Provinces has supported the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill with an 8-1 split, taking it a step closer to being passed as legislation.

Despite much noise and misrepresentation as to what the bill is about, all committee members and mostly those who joined from provincial legislatures were in agreement about the need for and importance of the bill.

The select committee on education is thus satisfied with the public participation processes it had undertaken and those undertaken by the department. No South African was left outside.

As it turned out, the protest and petitions that have been circulated by interested groups were a mere misrepresentation from people who did not read the bill, or, at the very least, did not understand it.

The bill is a comprehensive articulation of how schools are to be managed and administered.

Its opponents, especially the DA, have sought without success to paint it as an attempt to centralise power in the hands of officials and castration of Afrikaans as a language, which it knew was not true. When it realised this was false, it sought to paint the bill negatively on account of what it called inadequate public participation.

From our side as the National Council of Provinces and select committee, everything possible was done, and more than 30,000 written submissions received.

There were two sessions of oral submissions for inputs despite similar processes by provincial legislatures. The select committee even extended the date for written submissions in January.

Any negativity around the Bela bill is unfortunate and opponents of this bill are urged to go and read it with understanding.

The minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, had clarified that the bill contained court recommended amendments. “The department did not wake up and decide that it needed to have a good bill. This is the third admin dealing with this bill and some clauses have had to be deleted. The bill is more of an administrative and management of schools’ bill, not curriculum,” she once said.

During submissions, the running of schools was raised and so were issues that concern assessors, home schooling, CAPS competency of educators, grade R compulsory attendance, central procurement, pupil pregnancy, pupil suspensions, etc.

These are all important things when considering the future and quality of SA’s education.

The opposition to the Bela bill is neither informed by reality nor merit, but for the sake of opposing it. What reasonable excuse is there for anyone to oppose compulsory attendance of grade R? Or even better, the SGB deciding the language policy of the school in line with the locality a school is situated at? More and more parents are opting for home schooling and this is their children’s right, but the department needs to ensure quality and compatibility with the curriculum public schooling is offering.

Members have reason to be satisfied about the bill, given that the process started way back in 2017. Parliamentary legal adviser, Phumelele Ngema, assured the Bela bill was perfectly fine and if it were to be litigated against: “It will pass the constitutional test.”