Education activist slams Chiloane for announcing BELA Act implementation
Hendrick Makaneta claims the announcement creates confusion and undermines Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube.
Gauteng MEC for Education Matome Chiloane. Picture: X/@EducationGP1
JOHANNESBURG - One education activist slammed Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, for his announcement to implement the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act with immediate effect.
Hendrick Makaneta claims that the announcement creates confusion and undermines Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube.
President, Cyril Ramaphosa promulgated the contentious legislation on Friday after a three-months long consultation process with concerned stakeholders.
Makaneta is calling on education sector stakeholders to play a supportive role instead of sending confusing messages to the public.
"Education is a national competency, and while provinces play a vital role in implementation, they must align with national policies. We call on both Minister Gwarube and Matome Chiloane to urgently address this apparent misalignment."
While the African National Congress (ANC) endorses Ramaphosa’s decision to sign the contentious BELA Act, the anticipation now is that Gwarube, drafts its norms and standards.
Political Analyst, Sandile Swana, said that the signing of the Act is long overdue so further delays should be prevented.
He believes the DA and other political parties may try to prolong the implementation of the Act by deliberating too long on the norms and standards.
"I was looking for example at the norms and standards from the Department of Basic Education, its just on for instance, educators, its a 33 page document, ten of those pages are about definitions of things so this cant take more than 90 days even if it was 60 or 90 pages it cant take more than 90 days."