Sivuyile Nongwe
The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill was birthed from the outcomes of the education department’s own monitoring from which stemmed the need to amend parts of the various legislations to improve administration of the sector.
Over and above the critics that come often from the misinformation and misinterpretation of the BELA Bill, we need to establish that this adopted Bill does not encompass all aspects of the basic education sector. As stated by the education department: “the Bill seeks to strengthen governance in schools by tightening certain sections which have created challenges for the sector.” It is unfortunate that there are people whose efforts are directed at falsifying and thus discrediting the constructive aims of the BELA Bill.
Beyond my career as a senior education specialist, I am an advocate for education and therefore take on the onus to educate our people about the BELA Bill so they do not fall for any deception. Since the passing of the BELA BILL, there have been various misconceptions circulating in media platforms about it. The unfortunate part about these misconceptions is that parents and the community at large run with them. Below are a few misconceptions that I would love to expand on concerning the BELA Bill.
First misconception: Parents have no say on the BELA Bill implementation if their kids are at a school where the School Governing Body (SGB) approved the BELA Bill.
- The SGB does not have any power to choose the curriculum. Basic education institutions qualify through the National Qualification Framework (NQF) which then determines the curriculum. For example, government public schools use CAPS, while independent schools have the option to use CAPS or IEB which are the most used curriculums in South Africa. On the other hand, home-schooling institutions have the extended opportunity to use Cambridge and the likes for which they need to apply.
- The SGB has no power to choose the curriculum, however they can propose that schools select a certain Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) from research outcomes based on the commonly used language where the school is located. This was also impacted by the group areas act, from which communities were grouped according to their mother-tongue.
Second misconception: Selling of alcohol to learners
- The BELA Bill does not regulate the selling of alcohol to learners; however, it allows and regulates the sale of alcohol to parents during school fundraising events. In layman’s terms, the BELA Bill makes the provision that schools can sell alcohol to parents during fundraising events, however, schools need to acquire licensing in order to do so. This then limits the challenge that schools face whereby parents smuggle alcohol during school fundraising events or refrain from attending such events.
- Kids are exposed to alcohol on a daily basis, be it when they pass by local pubs, media or even the community they live in. Generally, drinking alcohol is not perpetuated by learners seeing other people drinking alcohol, it’s a matter of choice. On the other hand, the only thing that may be of concern regarding the sale of alcohol to parents during school fundraising events, is the effects that alcohol may have on the parents as they drink alcohol. Be it ill- behavior stimulated by parents being intoxicated, however that remains an ethics subject.
Third misconception: Schools teach sex
- Learners are not being taught sex, but rather comprehensive sexuality education. Learners ought to be aware and able to identify acts of sexual abuse so that they are able to report when such happens to them. In Life Skills and Life Orientation, there is an educator guide on scripted lesson plans for comprehensive sexuality education. These lesson plans include “Respect for my body and the bodies of others, Culture, society and sexuality, The basics of HIV/AIDS, Gender equality, bias and stereotypes and child abuse.”
- Parents ought to be cognisant of the difference between sex- the act of sexual intercourse or gender and sexuality which refers to what someone thinks about themselves.
- Sexuality is personal, sex is based on the global societal view of what a male and a female is.
In conclusion, the BELA Bill will have critics, which would be great if the critics come from an accurately informed perspective. Unfortunately, this is the reality of the world we live in. As a facilitator, I can train and educate 200 teachers on the implementation of the BELA BILL, amongst the 200, 50 can decide to go west when the directive says east and there’s no way that we can prevent that.