Ciao, BELA!
Is the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (BELA) a political weapon or does it promote ethical school governance & a child’s right to education?
There’s quite a brouhaha over BELA which the Teacher Training Lab finds rather puzzling.
Why is BELA so controversial?
Assessing its merits and drawbacks in an unbiased way, against the backdrop of political conflict, is proving a challenge for many educators and school leaders: hyped-up sloganeering and click-bait media taps into fears about continuing education dysfunction, distracting from what the legislation actually says.
Our view, If we look at the text itself, is as follows:
The Teacher Training Lab sees BELA as a well-considered refinement of the South African Schools Act (SASA), adding depth and nuance to important issues in the governance of schools and in education.
Our perspective is that BELA aims to: prevent education fraud, make learning inclusive, uphold constitutional rights and values, increase accountability, and defend against corruption, such as nepotism.
We see BELA as aligning SASA with court rulings post-1996, clarifying where the State ends and School Governing Bodies (SGBs) begin, and vice-versa.
We don’t believe BELA intends to obstruct SGBs, but that it rightfully insists on transparency and oversight.
We believe BELA supports SGBs in its vital roles.
We also see BELA as simultaneously holding government to account for its responsibilities too.
It appears that legislation such as BELA is being used to whip up fear in a volatile political landscape, polarising parents unnecessarily, particularly on issues such as language policy, curricula, admissions, and so on.
The perception that the government intends to wrest control over children’s lives out of the hands of their parents, is a drastically skewed one. In fact, BELA invites more participation from parents in their children’s education, and gives them more say in what schools enforce.
Contrary to sensationalist fear-mongering doing the rounds on social media, there is no instruction in the legislation that deprives parents from choosing to home school.
There is the requirement, however, that the Department of Education be informed.
There are currently thousands of learners unaccounted for as far as their education status is concerned: it is thought that they are being home-schooled but not registered. Minors must be accounted for by the relevant authorities: it would be a dereliction of the duty of care to not track our country’s learners.
Increased transparency in education decision-making by parents and schools is the focus in BELA, not the curtailing of them.
In relevant sections of BELA, the caveat ‘reasonable’ is used: that is, that any prohibitions, objections or disapproval of decisions, either by schools or parents, or the Department, must be reasonable. There is ample provision in BELA for a review process, or grievance procedure. There is ample provision for justifications of education choices based on circumstance.
Our interpretation of BELA is that it also seeks to:
monitor the mushrooming of potentially rogue schools
rein in any school (established, elite, rural, or otherwise) that operates with impunity.
There are schools that exploit parents and learners by promising the world at a hefty price. They deviate from acceptable pedagogy, deliver ideologically-driven content, which is academically inferior or harmful to child and adolescent development, promote un-democratic values and foster discrimination.
Rigid or exclusive admissions criteria often scaffold such schools.
An example would be: using a seemingly innocuous language policy to conceal a more sinister agenda, like racial discrimination. Under BELA, a school would have to prove that no such ulterior motive exists.
Schools must submit their language policies for review and approval - an unremarkable process if one looks not only internationally, but at the Equality of Languages Act.
There is ever-widening inequality that the government must take stock of - including its own role. We believe BELA does this by, for example, legislating compulsory Grade-R, with qualified teachers at the helm.
We need good schools. That’s a given. Government has failed in many of its targets - but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have robust legislation preventing a free-for-all in the sector. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Legislation that seeks accountability works both ways.
Our view is that transparency in admissions criteria, policies, curriculum, staffing, and resources, is beneficial to all stakeholders.
But don’t take our word for it:
Read BELA in its entirety for yourself.