Chairperson, hon Minister, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends. [Laughter.] It is a great pleasure for me this morning to talk about the two important Bills that we have managed to pass and will implement very soon. The reason I am so happy is because we are dealing with and trying to address the legacy that we inherited from the past. We are also trying to address the two-stream policy that was imposed on us as disadvantaged communities. These two Bills are very important, especially the Adult Basic Education and Training Bill.
Many of the learners who protested against Bantu education in the mid-70s and the 80s never had an opportunity to return to school. So they missed attaining any educational level. Naturally, many of them have reverted to either semiliteracy or complete illiteracy. These people were in the trenches fighting the system, thus adding to the already high statistics and unacceptable levels of illiteracy in our country.
I think the Eastern Cape is not immune to this, and by virtue of the society we inherited from the apartheid era, mostly black people are affected. Being committed to redressing the negative effects of apartheid in all spheres of life, the ANC-led Government cannot sit and despair. It is determined to transform our society by providing, amongst other things, life-long learning and the attainment of life-long skills.
The legislation under discussion today is only a beginning in ensuring that this dream does, in fact, come true. This legislation regulates and reorganises the provision of quality adult basic education and training in our society. I think we are advancing in this transformation, because in the past we used to have night schools, but today we are talking about public adult learning centres. So transformation will continue as long as the ANC-led Government is in power. To achieve this, heavy responsibility is placed on the MEC - member of the executive council - for education, the head of department in the province and the governing body of an adult basic education and training public centre. This ensures close monitoring, effective management and efficient skills governance.
Built into the various clauses of the Bill are empowerment mechanisms enabling the MEC, the head of department and the governing body to perform this important task and ensure that the enormous numbers of our people who do not have an education are not denied their right to basic education, because the apartheid regime made education a privilege and not a responsibility.
The responsibility to establish a public centre for an adult basic education in a province rests with the MEC. The MEC is correctly responsible for this because he or she is familiar with and aware of the needs of the province and is therefore in a better position to determine where such a centre may be located. Provision is made for a public centre occupying immovable state-owned property to have the right to use such property for educational purposes and to guard against improper use of such property. The HOD has the power to restrict that right.
At the same time, the Bill allows for flexibility and public participation in decision-making regarding public centres. For example, before restricting the right I have just referred to above, the head of department must inform the governing body of his or her intention, give the governing body a reasonable opportunity to make representations and duly consider such representations before acting.
It is one thing for an MEC to provide accommodation, but if there are not facilities for learning, adult basic education centres would be ineffective. Thus the HOD has the responsibility to provide facilities for use by public centres. In some cases, such facilities may be the same as those used by a public school. In that case, the Bill clearly sets out conditions for the head of department to enter into agreement with a school governing body concerning time schedules, sharing of resources, maintenance and improvement of facilities, access, security, and so on.
Should a need to merge two or more centres arise, this must be done in a transparent and democratic way by the MEC. Amongst the things that should be done is giving notice in the provincial gazette and sending written notices to the centres affected, and so on. Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to close a public centre. In that case, too, the MEC is required, in clause 6, to exercise transparency and accountability, and to allow the affected public to exercise its democratic right to be heard.
The assets and liabilities of such a centre must be dealt with in accordance with the law. The Bill provides for the management of centres by a centre manager appointed by the responsible head of department. Each centre is governed by a governing body composed of elected representatives elected from educators, learners and members of the staff. The elected members must co-opt members from the community. Such co-opted members have the right to deliberate. This is necessary to ensure full participation of the local community in the governance of the public centre.
If the public centre is accommodated in a public school, either the school principal or a member of the school governing body must be co-opted onto the centre's governing body. This ensures a strong link between the two governing bodies and augurs well for good working relations. However, such a co-opted member has no voting rights. The term of office of members of the governing body, the representivity of members, the disqualification and the removal of members, the filling of vacancies - all these and other related matters are determined by the MEC.
Should it be necessary to establish one governing body for two or more centres, the Bill provides for the MEC to do so. The Bill also details the function of the governing bodies. So this Bill is a milestone in our country. As such, the ANC does not have a problem in supporting the Bill.
The second Bill that we were looking at, the Education Laws Amendment Bill, focuses on a very critical aspect of education, namely the expectation of the process of discipline for educators.
Discipline is a critical aspect of professionalism. I am pleased that the Minister and his department continue to address the matter of raising the status of the teaching profession. Programmes such as the national teacher awards, the programmes on professional development, the developmental appraisal system, the review of salary structures for educators and the establishment of the SA Council for Educators are a clear indication of the Minister's commitment in this regard.
We applaud him. This Bill, therefore, must be seen as complementing this initiative. It seeks to deal with those individuals who bring the profession into dispute, who abuse children physically and sexually, who cause our children to be involved in substance abuse, who neglect their responsibilities as educators and who commit a variety of acts of misconduct. I am, therefore, very pleased to see the teaching profession, which is very dear to my heart as I am a teacher myself, slowly regaining the status it deserves in our country. [Applause.]