The Basic Education Portfolio Committee wants the department to review the recently published regulations of the Basic education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act and also finalise the outstanding regulations as soon as possible.

This comes after Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube gave the public until September 5 to comment on two sets of the Bela regulations that deal with language and school capacity after the new law was passed in December 2024.

Speaking to the media on the activities of the committee on Thursday, Basic Education Portfolio Committee Chairperson Joy Maimela said they have expressed discontent with the published regulations as the portfolio committee.

“The first issue is the fact that there are only two sets of regulations that are released out of eight. Our view is that releasing these regulations in such a manner is to create confusion because the regulations speak to each other and should correlate to each other,” she said.

Maimela said releasing only two regulations was trying to derail the implementation of the Bela Act in its totality and also creates confusion.

“Moreover, the department missed the deadline for the release of the regulations. The deadline was June, and they released only two.”

She called on stakeholders to engage with the regulations released for public comment.

Maimela observed that the regulations refer feeder zones as per demographics and education needs of surrounding communities to determine admissions when the Act gave the responsibility on admissions to the head of the department.

 “We believe that is not in line with the essence or principle of the Act. That potentially reinforces demographic homogeneity contrary to inclusivity the Act intended.”

She also said prior to the release of the regulations, the department had tried to publish guidelines for the Bela Act.

“In our discussions and a meeting with Provincial Education Department (PEDs), eight out nine indicated that this is creating confusion,” she said, adding that this view was shared by other stakeholders.

“We warned, as the portfolio committee, that the executive should not utilise enacting of the regulations to try to win certain things they could not win during public participation. There are certain items that are introduced in these regulations which were rejected during the public process.”

Maimela said it was the view of the committee that the executive was using the regulations to get other things through the backdoor.

“We urge stakeholders to engage with regulations thoroughly.”

She added that the Grade R infrastructure and funding were also critical issues since this class was compulsory in terms of the new law.

Maimela said engagements with the department on the readiness to implement Grade R as a compulsory grade has revealed that there were serious concerns with infrastructure backlog, budget availability, and teaching personnel.

“You have a lot of teachers who have been teaching Grade R but they don’t have the necessary qualifications. When we looked at plans of PEDs to capacitate these teachers, we raised concern about the pace and ensuring the Act is actualised in capacitating Grade R and teachers,” she said.

“We make the call to the PEDs and the department to make sure that they finalise the last set of regulations as soon as possible, but we also call for the review of the two regulations that they gazetted to ensure that they are in line with the Act as passed by Parliament,” added Maimela.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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