Grade R will be the new compulsory school-starting age, while penalties for parents who do not ensure their children are in school will soon come into effect, as the portfolio committee on basic education adopted the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill this week.
Committee chairperson Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba said the bill was more than 20 years in the making.
She said the proposed amendments were to “align the legislation with developments” in the education sector.
“The committee held extensive public hearings in all provinces, oral submissions were heard in Parliament from stakeholders, and thousands of written submissions were considered when debating and drafting this piece of legislation. This speaks of a Parliament that engages and listens to the people,” she said.
Regarding the language policy of a public school, the amendment reads that the governing body must submit the policy to the head of department for approval.
The contentious proposed amendment, regarding home education, was partially agreed to by the committee.
The amendment provides for the head of the department, when considering an application, to require a delegated official to conduct a pre-registration site visit.
Some proposed amendments were scrapped in totality, including the proposed amendment regarding the sale of alcohol on school premises after hours during functions.
The proposed amendment that members of a governing body had to disclose on an annual basis their financial interests and the financial interests of their spouses, partners and immediate family members also did not garner support, and was deemed by the committee to be too onerous a task.
The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) in the province said they supported the formalisation of Grade R. Provincial secretary Sibongile Kwazi said before parents could be penalised for children who did not attend school, proper investigations had to be conducted.
“We believe that the formalisation of Grade R builds a solid foundation for them, especially since these teachers are not treated as such.
“This has started in the province, where those qualified are labelled as teachers.
“We support the clause on the parents who don’t take their children to school; however, we do not support the penalties because there may be a variety of reasons.
“We say that, before action may be taken, investigations must be done to get to the root of the issue.
“We don’t want to punish parents without understanding their circumstances,” she said.
National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) executive director Basil Manuel said the most exciting part of the bill was the inclusion of Grade R into the compulsory schooling phase.
“Naptosa has long called for this inclusion. What this means exactly must still be spelled out.
“What, however, is obvious is that this is an exercise that demands financial, human, and physical resources to make it a reality.
“Over the years, we have made various inputs into the bill, both during the public comment phase as well as the comment phase afforded to education sector unions.
We have seen the bill change and improve in many ways.
“This by no means suggests that we do not still have concerns,” he said.
The committee is expected to meet next week to adopt the final bill before it is referred to the National Assembly for debate and consideration.
Cape Times