Thank you, Chairperson. I would like to thank the members who participated in the debate. I particularly wish to thank the chairperson of the committee for steering the Bill to the point of our being able to debate and vote on it in the House today.
I must say, as usual, that I am very surprised because I certainly thought this legislation would take us to a new phase in the provision of quality education for the children of our country and that, given that, it would be supported by all the members of this House. I can't imagine myself voting against a piece of legislation that says a school has certain basic attributes it must have: classrooms, a library, laboratories, resource centres for media and ITC. Denying that is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable.
Furthermore, the legislation clearly states that a principal cannot be a witness against the Minister with a governing body unless a court expressly provides for this or the Minister indicates that the person will not be a witness on behalf of the department or the Minister. So, there isn't a muzzling; you are being quite ridiculous in your approach. Of course, we know you have never supported quality education for the majority of people in this country and we are not surprised that you will not vote for this particular piece of legislation. [Interjections.]
We are very happy that some of the parties have indicated strong support, especially for the norms and standards, for the identification of and support for underperforming schools, for ensuring that no school principal gets away with being the head of a school that doesn't have a learning plan, that doesn't support teacher development, that does nothing to ensure that underperformance is actually targeted and addressed by the principal as the leader of the school.
For the first time we have provisions where we can hold our employees accountable for the learning of our children. But we don't only hold the employees in the schools accountable; we are also saying the MECs as well as the heads of department have a duty to ensure that the norms and standards are met. It's very important.
We hope that this House as well as the other House will ensure that these norms and standards, which have been specified for the first time clearly in legislation - in concrete terms - will hold those who hold the money responsible, hon Bhoola, for using it to provide the resources for learning that they must. The Minister of Finance in making comments on education was absolutely right, but if he could give us some financial control, perhaps we would do more than is done by those who currently have exclusive financial control of resources for education.
We really welcome those members who've said that there should be consultation. Obviously, there must be consultation and there will be. We have advertised and called for nominations for the body that I intend to establish. We have received nominations from a range of persons and individuals. All legislation is published and gazetted for public comment; days are set aside for this. Any person is able to comment. So to seek to hold us hostage to a group of some nebulous persons is absolutely ridiculous and this cannot be allowed to stop us from proceeding with the changes that we believe are necessary.
We must ensure, as we implement the search and seizure provisions of the legislation once it is signed into law, that the rights of learners and any person who is searched on the school grounds are of course protected. It's for this reason that very careful steps related to the search processes and to recording of the process, etc, have been set out in the legislation.
The issue of reasonableness has also been articulated in the Bill in order to give that test which is required in terms of the limitation clause in our Constitution so absolutely, with regard to the rights of learners.
I think paramount is the need to protect our children from the scourge of drugs and weapons in our schools. There is too much violence; there are too many drugs in our society; there is too much out there that is a threat to young people. So, I would think we should veer towards the protection of children rather than protecting individuals who are peddling drugs on our school grounds. I think that when we support antidrug measures, we must do so in a balanced way across every sector in society. Thank you, Chairperson. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time (Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party, African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Front Plus dissenting).