The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education received 18,000 comment submissions to the proposed amendments of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, of which only approximately 5,000 written submissions have been processed.
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) is among the stakeholders that have made submissions, the union has since welcomed some of the provisions in the Bill but has rejected some of the provisions that it has labelled as being problematic.
One of the provisions that have been rejected by Cosatu, include the criminalisation of any disruptions of schools. In a statement, the Federation has explained:
This definition of school disruptions is too broad, unconstitutional and will effectively criminalise teachers and education workers for exercising their constitutional and legal rights to picket, protest and strike.
Additionally, Cosatu has highlighted that such a ban won’t pass constitutional muster and will be challenged in the Constitutional Court, should it not be removed by Parliament from the Bill.
In an oral submission, home-schooling activist organisation, the Pestalozzi Trust highlighted that homeschooling parents will be resisting these contemplated changes for various reasons.
The organisation’s chairperson, Bouwe van der Eems has explained that the provisions have taken away their freedom of choice of curriculum, the required home visits will infringe on their privacy will be infringed upon by a requirement for home visits, and homeschooling learners being registered.
The Basic Education Committee's Content Advisor, Portia Mbude-Mutshekwane, revealed that most of the processed submissions had the same trend of stakeholders rejecting the BELA Bill.
