Western Cape rejects BELA bill in its current form

The Western Cape’s Standing Committee on Education has voted to reject the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) Bill, in its current form.

The committee concluded its deliberation on several clauses of the controversial bill on Monday. Three DA, and an ACDP member voted to oppose the bill, while the ANC voted in support.

PICTURE: StartHomeSchooling

The province is unhappy with the bill due to inaccurate cost and not being fully funded for the implementation by National Government. The provinces report with amendments, will now be referred to the NCOP for the negotiation mandate.

Committee Chairperson, Deidré Baartman, says the committee considered more than five thousand submissions from the public and have engaged in an extensive public participation process, the bill, she says, failed to look into crucial things affecting the education sector.

‘’In its deliberations on the public submissions on Friday and Monday, the committee found that the overwhelming majority of submissions were against the Bill. This indicates clearly that the people of the Western Cape do not wish for this Bill to become law.’’

‘’In addition to this, the committee has also uncovered evidence of a severe deficit in funding for the Bill, with neither the national Department of Basic Education (DBE) nor National Treasury willing to commit to the multi-billion Rand cost of implementing the Bill. At a committee meeting held on the 11th of April, both of these national government entities admitted that the cost of BELA will primarily have to be carried by already cash-strapped provincial governments. According to a briefing to the committee by the Financial and Fiscal Commission, this cost can be conservatively estimated at R17.7 billion, since the DBE formula is based on a teacher-learner ratio of 1:40. Further, this amount does not account for uncosted matters such as increases in nutrition and transport programmes – and yet is still much higher than the estimate claimed by the DBE,’’ said Deidré Baartman, Western Cape Provincial Committee Chairperson on Education.

The Committee has called the Bill to be withdrawn.

 

Done By: Mitchum George