Madam Chairperson, hon members and South Africans, I was going to speak about "Three T". I thought that it emanated from somewhere, and my colleague here said where it emanated from. If I had the luxury of time, I would have loved to engage with this Bill against the "Three T" call. I am not sure where it started, but that is not what I am asking now.
The "teacher, time and text" call should be engaged with against the provisions of this Bill. The Bill is an instrument that provides and facilitates the application of calls like these. It can therefore not be appreciated in a void. It gives us the guidelines and the protection. It is a navigation tool, a compass, but we need particular instances and cases against which we can appreciate the validity of the Bill.
Moving to the Bill itself, Cope does understand that the National Education Policy Act, Act 27 of 1996, is being amended to be in line with the new Department of Basic Education.
Section 4 of Act 27 of 1996 allows every learner to be instructed in the language of his or her choice where this is reasonably practicable. We agree with this notion that all official languages should be treated equally and that schools should not and must not use language as a basis for discrimination against any learner or group of learners.
Over and above this, the Bill goes on to stress that the education system must contribute to the full personal development of each learner and to the moral, cultural, political and economic development of the nation at large. Allow me to underscore, and really to overemphasise, the issue of "moral" in this provision. The implication of these provisions, when unpacked, is vast. At a time in our history when the focus is almost entirely on the exit of Grade 12, the full personal development of a learner will not occur unless some steps are taken. At some point, I would like to urge the Minister to take us through specific steps that she will take to comply with this provision.
On the practical level, we do concur with the issue of "loan", and we think that it is quite right that the payment of salaries is excluded from this provision, so we are in favour of that.
The collaboration between the Minister of Basic Education and the Minister of Finance is quite welcome, because we need that kind of dual accountability.
Lastly, the prohibition of political party activity during school time is, indeed, a progressive move. Cope endorses the view that no political party activities may, can or should be conducted at a school during school time. I cannot overemphasise the issue of schools being places of integrity and places of worship for new knowledge production. So, Cope supports this Bill, because it is necessary in our present circumstances. Thank you. [Applause.]