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The portfolio committee on basic education has removed one of the most controversial and fiercely debated changes it wanted to introduce to schools in South Africa.
Following months of stakeholder and public feedback on the coming Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, the Department of Basic Education has opted to remove the clauses giving provincial heads of department (HODs) the final say on language and admission policies at schools across the country.
According to the portfolio committee’s feedback reports on public consultations, these clauses – clause 4 and 5 of the bill – emerged as one of the most contested. This was to such an extent that the committee sought legal opinion from Parliament’s legal services on the Constitutionality of the proposed change.
While the legal opinion supported the department’s intentions, the government ultimately didn’t want to give the impression that it was trying to centralise power or remove power and autonomy from school governing bodies (SGBs).
“The HOD does not have unfettered powers to amend the language policy of a school. (Other clauses) include a very detailed procedure that must be followed when such a decision is made,” the department said in its draft revision document.
This includes public consultation. Should the SGB not be satisfied with the decision of the HOD after the entire procedure, the bill caters for an appeal mechanism with the MEC.
Based on the draft recommendations given by the committee, “the requirement to submit the admission policy is withdrawn, and the requirement for SGBs to submit the language policy will be removed“.
Power play
Comments on the language and admission policy clauses pointed out that giving the government the “final say” on admissions and language policies would contravene the Schools Act which envisions a “cooperative” relationship between SGBs, HODs and the department.
It would also prove to be an overwhelming administrative task – with provinces already facing capacity constraints, unable to deal with day-to-day submissions and correspondents. To add 24,000 public schools and their language and admission policies into the mix would be to invite further disaster.
Recommendations made to the department noted that the bill should rather cultivate cooperation between HODs and SGBs, and allow the latter to fulfil its mandate of dealing with administrative issues like admissions and language policy.
“It is crucial that parents can decide on the format of their children’s schools,” it said.
The language needs of the communities in a school’s feeder zone should be taken into consideration, the committee said, but the principle of feeder zones not needing to be geographically adjacent to the school should continue to be recognised.
Importantly, however, the laws should ensure that national, provincial and local education bodies work together to address issues of capacity – setting objective criteria and taking into account minimum norms and standards for public schools.
“Allowing the SGB to retain their administrative duties will lead to improved education outcomes and better serve the interests of learners,” the committee said.
“Children must be able to be taught in their own language and therefor SGBs must be allowed to decide on the language policy of the school.”
At the same time, SGBs also have “some mandatory obligations” to the HOD to ensure that steps are taken and executed to address the issues raised by the communities they serve.
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