Madam Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, and hon members, I greet you. I feel humbled, but at the same time it also gives me great pleasure, to participate in this debate today. The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education thanks the House for giving us the opportunity to present issues and concerns relating to the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill.
Education remains an apex priority for our government, the ANC-led government. It remains a pillar that our government wants to use to reach its long-range developmental goals. To achieve this, the ANC's Polokwane Conference of 2007 resolved to split the Department of Education into two departments, namely Basic Education and Higher Education and Training.
Basic Education has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the achievement of quality education in our schools. The split, therefore, necessitated focused attention on issues affecting basic education and focused intervention measures.
It is important to note that the split is beginning to bear fruits. The 2010 matric results give us hope, and we are convinced that we will achieve many more such good results. We need to celebrate the achievement of these learners and build momentum from there.
We congratulate the hon Minister, her Deputy and the Department of Basic Education for being instrumental in the achievements of the cohorts of 2010 and for their dedication and commitment to their calling.
The split further necessitated amendments to basic education law, which we will speak on, that is, the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill. As stated in its main object, the Bill seeks to clarify certain existing provisions in laws that affect basic education and to provide statutory authority for practices currently in existence at schools.
The Bill seeks to align the following laws as alluded to by the Minister of Basic Education, namely: National Education Policy Act, Act 27 of 1996; South African Schools Act, Act 84 of 1996; Employment of Educators Act; South African Council for Educators Act; and General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act. The amendments to this Bill are both technical and substantive.
To support this process of amending the Bill, the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education requested written submissions. Interested stakeholders, particularly teachers' unions, entities within the department, governing body associations, individuals and civil society organisations responded and sent valuable comments.
As we are aware that public participation is the cornerstone of our democracy, the committee saw it as important to hold public hearings to listen to the individual submissions of stakeholders and interested parties. It was essential that our communities made inputs into matters affecting their daily lives.
We are grateful to those stakeholders for raising pertinent issues in order to reinforce certain clauses so as to influence the necessary amendment of this Bill. As a committee we noted how these stakeholders engaged on issues that were evoked by certain clauses in the Bill. Of note to the committee was the engagement on the following clauses. Clause 6 of the Bill seeks to realise the obligation imposed by sections 6, 29 and 30 of the Constitution of the country to promote and ensure parity of esteem for all official languages and to ensure that they are treated equitably.
Clause 9 seeks to put principals of schools in a position to assist the governing body with the management of school finances.
Clause 11 seeks to outlaw all political activities during school time.
Clause 19 of the Bill seeks to empower the South African Council for Educators to manage within its available resources the Continuing Professional Teacher Development system.
The department supported some of the comments. The committee was satisfied that the process of public participation yielded good results and the spirit of the people's parliament is at work.
The committee - that is all political parties represented in the committee - debated these amendments, keeping in mind the improvement of the quality of basic education, which is important at all times. I would like to thank committee members for guiding this process. The comments and submissions helped us to have this final product, which we are proud of as we present it to this august House today. Finally, I present the motion of desirability which the entire committee - that is all political parties present in our meetings - agreed upon. Political parties present included the ANC, the DA, the IFP, Cope, the ACDP and Azapo, and they agreed on the following:
In the opinion of the committee, legislation is desirable to:
amend the National Education Policy of 1996 so as to amend or delete certain definitions;
amend the South African Schools Act 1996 so as to amend certain definitions and to define "loan";
provide for consultation with the Minister of Finance before uniform minimum norms and standards are determined;
ensure that there is no unfair discrimination in respect of official languages;
provide for the imposition of a suitable sanction if an appeal by a learner who has been expelled from a public school has been upheld by the Member of the Executive Council;
provide for public schools that provide education with a specialised focus on talent;
provide for additional functions of a principal of a public school;
provide for the training of the governing bodies;
prohibit political activities during school time;
empower the Member of the Executive Council to identify additional schools that may not charge school fees;
further regulate the liability of the state for certain damages;
amend the Employment of Educators Act so as to amend certain definitions and regulate afresh the application of the said Act;
amend the South African Council for Educators Act so as to amend certain definitions and empower the council to manage within its available resources the Continuing Professional Teacher Development system;
amend the General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act so as to amend certain definitions and provide for matters connected to their work; and
refer the Bill to the committee to be taken as a basis.
As the Chairperson, I request support for the Bill and urge all parties to accept this Bill in the spirit that prevailed in the committee in their supporting it.
I thank all stakeholders who participated in the process of making sure that the Bill is a success. Thanks go to committee members for their commitment to concluding this Bill amicably. I thank the departmental senior officials and their legal team; the state law advisor; the committee legal advisor, Adv Gordon; the secretary, Mr Brown; the researcher, Mr Mahada; and the content advisor, Mr Bandie, for diligently guiding the committee and ensuring that reports were ready in every discussion to guide us as a committee in finalising this Bill. I thank you.