Several civil organisations are calling for Parliament to put the interests of learners first when considering amendments to the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill).
The BELA bill proposes significant changes to the country’s education system, including making Grade R compulsory, criminalising parents for failing to ensure their children are in school and strengthening oversight over School Governing Bodies (SGBs).
Another contentious piece of legislation seeks to revise school admission and language policies. Historically, admissions and language policies at some public schools have been accused of excluding learners based on race and socioeconomic class.
Wealthier schools may use these policies to limit class sizes, while under-resourced schools struggle with overcrowding.
Clause 4 of the BELA Bill states that a school's governing body has the authority to determine the admissions policy, but it must comply with the national and provincial education laws and the Constitution. The governing body needs to submit the policy (and any changes) to the Head of Department for approval.
Clause 5 of the bill says the governing body of a public school has the authority to determine the language policy, following the Constitution and relevant laws. The chosen language policy must be limited to one or more of South Africa's official languages.
Like the admissions policy, the governing body would need to submit the language policy (and any changes) to the Head of Department for approval.
The NCOP has now proposed amendments to the BELA Bill that would weaken the authority of provincial education heads of departments (HODs) to oversee and intervene in discriminatory admissions and language policies.
In a joint statement, SECTION27, Equal Education, the Equal Education Law Centre, and the Legal Resources Centre argue that the NCOP's amendments are unconstitutional and will undermine the transformation of the education sector.
They call on Parliament to resist the backlash and put the best interests of learners first by reinstating the HOD's oversight powers and passing the BELA Bill.
The civil organisations argue that the BELA Bill is designed to ensure that school language and admissions policies do not unfairly discriminate against learners and hinder their access to public schools. Therefore should the waterdown legislation be passed, the BELA Bill would fail to address some of the challenges the legislation was created to combat.
[the NCOP] proposed amendments to the BELA Bill would water down important clauses that entrench proactive oversight powers on the part of provincial education Heads of Departments (HODs). We are concerned that these regressive changes have come in response to conservative pressure and we urgently call for them to be reversed.
While these clauses would strengthen oversight over SGBs, some critics argue that they are essentially usurping power from them.
Civil groups explain that the NCOP's amendments would remove the mandatory review process and restrict the HODs power to direct changes to SGB policies.
They argue this will weaken the ability of education officials to address potential bias in school policies. While the authority to instruct schools to review their admissions and language policies remains with HODs, the power to enforce changes would disappear.
This means schools wouldn't be obligated to submit their policies for regular approval, making it harder for officials to proactively identify and fix discriminatory practices.
Moreover, SGBs would no longer be explicitly obliged to submit their admissions and language policies to the HOD for approval on a routine basis. This change deprives the HOD of a valuable opportunity to act proactively where change is needed and prevent future exclusionary incidents from occurring.
Critics argue this could lead to an increase in situations where schools need to be directly ordered to accept certain students or adopt additional languages.
The change also makes it more likely that the HOD will need to use the powers to direct schools to adopt a language or admit particular students.
Aside from considering the best interest of the learners, the civil organisations call for the NCOP to consider the changing number of learners who speak the language, the effective use of classroom space and the broader language needs of the community where the school is.
