Submission to the Department of Basic Education on the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill

The Department of Basic Education recently unveiled a revised draft of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, 2015, which proposes changes to be made to both the South African Schools Act and the Employment of Educators Act. This submission addresses itself principally to the amendments proposed to the Schools Act. While most of the Bill entails technical amendments warranting no comment, it is deficient in that it unduly centralises South Africa’s public education system. The powers of school governing bodies are limited to near-irrelevance, with greater authority being given to the heads of provincial education departments. The Bill’s justification for this centralisation of power is weak and often non-existent. The attempts in the explanatory memorandum to justify the interventions at various junctures amount to little more than deceptive intellectual trickery and fallacies.

To view the submission please click here.