The DA, the second-largest coalition partner in the government of national unity (GNU), has taken to the streets to oppose the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act.
The Bela Act is threatening the school governing body’s (SGB) ability to make decisions about admissions and language, according to the DA.
According to the party, the Bela Act will also restrict the use of mother tongue languages in classrooms.
Siviwe Gwarube, a member of the DA, is the Minister of Education.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law in September.
However, because of resistance from certain organisations, including the DA, clauses 4 and 5, which deal with admissions and language instruction and learning, were left out.
The opposition parties were given three months to propose potential fixes for the two clauses.
SGBs have critical role to play
The DA national spokesperson, Willie Aucamp, said the SGBs should not be excluded from the policy-making process since they are the ones who know what they want for learners.
Since they are not on the ground to witness situations firsthand, Aucamp said a random department employee who would be expected to make decisions would probably make mistakes.
In his opinion, there should be enough schools in every area that speak various languages and avoid converting “functional schools into dysfunctional schools.”
Aucamp asserted that despite having ample time in office, the ANC did not construct schools.
He stated that the DA will push for the construction of additional schools and higher education facilities as well as the training of more teachers in response to the purported ANC shortcomings.
Reading for comprehension
In addition, he pointed out that most grade 4 students struggled to comprehend what they were reading and stated that this was because they were not receiving enough mother-tongue education.
This, he claimed, was the fundamental issue that required attention.
“Let’s not move the problem and create another one. There are less than 5% of schools in South Africa that are Afrikaans schools, so why this attack?” he asked.
“Let us rather work together; with the DA in the government of national unity, we are working very hard to turn this ship around.”
The spokesperson for the DA Tshwane caucus, Kwena Moloto, stated that they were adamantly opposed to what he called a disastrous act that amended the basic education laws.
“Instead of trying to destroy mother tongue education, we should be trying to expand it to all South Africans in order to improve our education system,” said Moloto.
