Basic Education Minister, Ms Siviwe Gwarube, Basic Education Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli and a delegation of senior DBE managers, briefed the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, 2024 (Act No. 32 of 2024) Regulations and implementation, and in particular how it relates to Grade R Admissions, including an update on Section 4 and 5. The briefing took place in Cape Town on 8 July 2025 and provincial education MECs and Heads of Departments (HoDs) also made presentations during the Committee meeting.

Minister Gwarube said that, “the DBE has been actively supporting the sector in implementing the BELA Act; this support included the training of provincial and district officials, the development of interim guidelines and the development of an extensive suite of draft regulations to further support implementation. The first two regulations focused on admissions and capacity, will be published in the coming weeks for public comment, with further regulations to follow. “This reflects our commitment to a legal and policy framework that is responsive and fit for purpose.”

These regulations will provide practical and procedural clarity on key provisions of the 2024 amendments to the South African Schools Act (SASA,1996) and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA,1998) introduced by the BELA Act. The Minister further explained that ten task teams were established to handle each regulation and two regulations were nearly complete and are sitting with the Office of the Chief State Law Advisor (OCSLA). The DBE’s Legal and Legislative Services Directorate, headed by Advocate Ntini Mashigo, assists on an advisory basis to ensure Constitutionality. The regulations have been submitted to the OCSLA for Constitutional Scrutiny. The submitted regulations were found by OCSLA not to be in conflict with the Constitution and the Act. In accordance with the relevant legislative requirements, including section 61 of the SASA, these draft regulations will undergo public consultation before finalisation and the draft regulations will be published for public comment. Following the public comment period and internal revision processes, the Minister of Basic Education hopes to gazette the finalised regulations before the end of the 2025 calendar year with these taking effect from the beginning of the 2026 school year.

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education strongly emphasised the need for urgent drafting of regulations relating to the BELA Act. The implementation of the Act commenced on 24 December 2024, as proclaimed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, and has been in effect since then. The BELA Act makes Grade R compulsory; however, provinces have been implementing Grade R even before the Act and within an environment of financial constraints, PEDs are providing teachers and other relevant resources for Grade R.

HEDCOM has approved that the qualified Grade R teachers who are appointed in public schools should be appointed permanently into vacant, funded educator posts, depending on the availability of posts and funding. The DBE audit has found that there are 7,294 Grade R practitioners who are currently appointed in public schools who do not possess the required NQF Level 6 qualification to teach in our schools, particularly in Grade R. Of the above number, 6,957 only have NQF level 4 or 5 qualifications, and 337 do not have NQF level 4 qualifications. Of the above two categories, the 337 cohort of practitioners who do not have NQF 4, as well as those who would not be willing to study towards NQF level 6 will be terminated from employment because they do not meet the requirements to teach in schools. An opportunity will be given to the 6,957 to enrol for an NQF Level 6 or 7 qualification. PEDs no longer appoint unqualified educators/practitioners and a Draft Collective Agreement addressing the measures to deal with unqualified and underqualified Grade R practitioners has been drafted and is being considered by Labour. New replacements for unqualified practitioners who are on a stipend will have to be appointed on full educator scales. This cost will also be incurred gradually, depending on the attrition rate of unqualified practitioners. The formalisation of the allocation of posts for Grade R by distribution through the Post Provisioning Norms (PPN) model will likely increase the number of additional full educator posts needed.

“The education sector is in desperate need of additional funding to support the roll-out of compulsory Grade R, as required by the BELA Act. However, the sector was not able to secure additional funding from National Treasury for this important undertaking. This has meant that our provinces are having to fund this within their allocated budgets. We will continue to work closely with the Minister of Finance and National Treasury to ensure that additional funding can be secured to ensure that all children are able to access quality Grade R education,” the Minister added.