{"id":751124,"date":"2024-02-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=751124"},"modified":"2024-02-17T09:07:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T07:07:58","slug":"new-laws-for-schools-in-south-africa-an-overreach-by-the-state-governing-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/751124\/new-laws-for-schools-in-south-africa-an-overreach-by-the-state-governing-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"New laws for schools in South Africa an &#8216;overreach by the state&#8217;: governing bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.gov.za\/storage\/app\/media\/Bills\/2022\/B2_2022_Basic_Education_Laws_Amendment_Bill\/B2B_2022_Basic_Education_Laws_Amendment_Bill.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.gov.za\/storage\/app\/media\/Bills\/2022\/B2_2022_Basic_Education_Laws_Amendment_Bill\/B2B_2022_Basic_Education_Laws_Amendment_Bill.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Basic Education Laws Amendment <\/a>(BELA) Bill moves closer to being signed into law, supporters hope that the new legislation will close many &#8216;loopholes&#8217; in the education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, many school governing bodies (SGBs) continue to oppose the coming changes and worry that their concerns have fallen on deaf ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This amended piece of legislation introduces a few changes to the South African Schools Act (SASA) of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA) of 1998 (Act No. 76 of 1898).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some examples of amendments to the BELA Bill which will affect SGBs include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Education heads of department (HoDs)<strong> now have the final say<\/strong> after consulting school governing bodies (SGBs) as to <strong>which pupils to admit to public schools<\/strong> as well as the <strong>school&#8217;s language policy<\/strong>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Further regulates the withdrawal of the functions of governing bodies;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> HoD may<\/strong> (on reasonable grounds) <strong>dissolve a governing body<\/strong> that &#8220;has ceased to perform its functions&#8221;;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>governing body<\/strong> of a public school <strong>must submit quarterly reports on all income and expenditure<\/strong>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Compel<strong> SGB members to declare annually their financial interests<\/strong> as well as those of their immediate families.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas), Dr. Jaco Deacon said that the bill &#8220;will discourage school communities from taking ownership of public schools [which] will take us back to a state school model where the state will have ultimate control over everything.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said South Africa &#8220;stepped away from that model in 1994.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While numerous provisions in the bill have been welcomed, including expanding the definition of corporal punishment to protect children and criminalising some parental conduct &#8211; many, including those to do with SGBs, have been met with fierce resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deacon said there is &#8220;an overreach by the state with specific reference to the proposed amendments on the admissions and language policies.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said that SGBs are best positioned to deal with these specific policies, with &#8220;no need for the HOD to accept or approve [the policies].&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another point of contention for Fedsas is a possible administration burden. Deacon said that schools having to submit quarterly financial statements on top of their annual audited financial statements, without any additional staff, is an unnecessary strain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the federation is concerned about the central procurement of learning and teaching material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Until we have resolved our procurement issues, dealt with corruption and have trust in the system, central procurement will only create a new place where the state will be looted at the expense of learners.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga sought to ease concerns around the bill this week by portraying the government&#8217;s support of SGBs at the launch of elections for school governing bodies in Pretoria on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her address, she acknowledged the positive impact &#8220;functional SGBs&#8221; have on schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is a correlation between engaged SGBs and school success, and this is undeniable because schools with great SGBs who participate in the work of the schools have an average of 20% higher performance compared to those schools where there is lower engagement with parents,\u201d said Motshekga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deacon responded to this, saying that &#8220;the Minister is correct that schools perform much better if there is a functioning SGB [and an] involved community that works in tandem with school management and the educators [as] good governance and management is a prerequisite for a successful school.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, he said the BELA Bill will not encourage this &#8211; &#8220;quite the opposite; it will harm the top-performing schools,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Supporters of the bill have argued that the bill removes a &#8220;loophole&#8221; that allowed SGBs to exclude learners from admission based on race &#8211; but again, Deacon contested this position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If there is &#8220;blatant unfair discrimination, the SA Schools Act already allows for a remedy where SGB functions can be withdrawn where there is an appeal process.&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally, opponents of the bill have posited that the legislation &#8220;disempowers schools, parents, and communities&#8221;, fails to address systemic challenges (like overcrowding, poor literacy, dropouts and a lack of resources), instead opting to centralise power within government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The department said this is a &#8220;common misconception&#8221; and that the bill &#8220;aspires to harmonise the powers of the SGB with the directives of the relevant provincial Head of Department&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The BELA Bill is currently sitting in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and is likely to face further legal and political opposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/742919\/new-laws-for-schools-in-south-africa-the-clock-is-ticking\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/742919\/new-laws-for-schools-in-south-africa-the-clock-is-ticking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New laws for schools in South Africa \u2013 the clock is ticking<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Governing bodies are worried that coming laws will do more harm than good &#8211; and take schooling back to the state-controlled model used pre-1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":676119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[8538,19362,19360,10297],"class_list":["post-751124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-angie-motshekga","tag-basic-education-laws-amendment-bill","tag-bela-bill","tag-department-of-basic-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751124"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752679,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751124\/revisions\/752679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}