Do away with right of veto, otherwise BELA retains its poison
18 April 2024
As long as the Department of Education retains a final say on schools’ language and admissions policies, the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill remains an outrage.
Solidarity supports requests from political parties to scrap in their entirety the clauses on language and admissions in the bill. However, yesterday these requests were rejected by the ANC majority in the select committee of the National Council of Provinces (NCP).
As a result, provincial heads of education still retain the right of veto with regard to these policies, even though schools are allowed to compile those policies themselves.
According to Johnell Prinsloo, education researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), these changes therefore do not amount to accommodation by the government at all.