The DBE and the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, this week, met for the presentation of the national report on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill. The report provides a consolidation of all processes undertaken regarding the processing of the Bill. These include the public participation process of public hearings across all nine provinces, oral submissions made in Parliament and written submissions. The report provides a summary of key issues raised, a clause by clause analysis and recommendations regarding public comments on the BELA Bill.

DBE’s Chief Director for Planning and Implementation Support, Mr James Ndlebe, explained that, “The report will be adopted during next week’s Committee meeting on 15 August 2023, where the DBE will also be providing a presentation on the funding of the Bill. The two parties will then, from 16 to 18 August, conduct clause by clause deliberations on all 56 clauses of the Bill. Some of the proposed amendments include: Making Grade R the new compulsory school starting age; Criminalising parents who don't ensure their children are in school; Holding School Governing Bodies (SGBs) accountable for financial interests; Abolishing corporal punishment; Encouraging Home School learners to be registered; Allowing schools to sell alcohol outside of school hours; Giving government department heads power over language policies and curriculums; and Prohibiting educators from conducting business with the state.” These clause by clause deliberations will be attended by senior DBE officials, as well as Legal and Parliamentary Services, and will be open to the public with the sessions being live-streamed on Parliament’s YouTube channel.

A total of 11,264 participants attended the public hearings across all nine provinces. Of the 11,264 participants, a total of 1,586 speakers made oral submissions on the Bill. Overall, there were 638 female speakers, 944 male speakers and 4 speakers whose gender was undeclared or fall in the category of transgender. Public hearings and other consultative forums are important vehicles for the participation of children and youth in decision-making and policy development on matters that directly affect them. During the provincial public hearings, 235 children and youth participated to express their views on the BELA Bill.

The Committee also embarked on physical oral public hearings in Parliament from 8 to 29 November 2022. The call for public submissions attracted approximately 32,941 written submissions from members of the public. Public submissions were received electronically via email, google forms and hand delivered via courier, whilst others were received during the public hearings. The received number of comments is broken down as follows: 17,452 email submissions; 549 Google form submissions; one handwritten and one video submission; 11,522 courier / hand delivered submissions; 251 post cards; and 4,733 submissions received during the public hearings.