ADULT BASIC EDUCATION AND TRAINING BILL [B42-2000]

FEDSAS
11 August 2000
FEDSAS SUBMISSION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, CONCERNING THE ADULT GENERAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING ("AGET") BILL GOVERNMENT GAZETTE 31 MARCH 2000, NO.21052.

We set out our submissions (including commentary and proposals) briefly We shall take the opportunity, presented by the hearing before the Portfolio Committee, to elaborate on and, if necessary debate about them.

We hope and trust that the laudable willingness of the honourable Committee to invite submissions from a wide range of stakeholders, will be matched by an equal willingness to duly weigh and consider also our submissions in deciding the final version of the bill for tabling in Parliament.

That the following Section 4 (2) be inserted -

"(2) if no facilities are available to be used by the public centre, the Head of Department must, in order to provide facilities for the public centre, exercise higher powers in terms of Section 20 (1) (k) of the South African Schools Act, 1996 (Act No.84 of 1996); provided that if the Head of Department in conjunction with the governing body of the public centre is unable to reach agreement with the governing body of the public school concerned regarding the reasonable use of the facilities of such school under fair conditions, as envisaged in Section 20 (1) (k) of the said Act, the nature and scope of reasonable user and/ or fair conditions of user shall be determined by an independent arbitrator appointed by the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration Act, 1965".

Sight must not be lost of Section 34 of the Bill of Rights -

'¹Everyone has. the right to have any dispute that can be resolved the application of law decided in a fair public hearing before a court or, where appropriate, another independent and impartial tribunal or forum".

2.2 Sections 4 (2) (3) (4) and (5) have far reaching implications for public schools. indeed, these provisions contradict several of the provisions of the South African Schools Act_,1996 (Act No.84 Of 1996), not the least of which being Section 20 (1) (k) itself.

2.3 We have been informed by the legal advisor for the National Department of Education that nothing is excluded from the scope of the "facilities" referred to in Section 4(1).

2.4 We question the need for Section 13(2) and express the concern that it may be used in conjunction with Section 40, to compel public school principals to act in relation to AGET public centres in disregard of the functions (rights, powers and duties) of their SGB's.

2.5 We cannot but point out that the provisions of Section 4 (3) (4) (5) of the Bill, no provision is made for remedies for the public school in cases of breach - not even the right to sue for arrear "rental", or sue for damages, or eviction etc.

2.6 We persist in our view that Section 4 (2), (3), (4) and (5) should be scrapped. To the extent that Section 20 (1) (k) of SASA may be available to the Read of Department of a province to make facilities available to AGET centres. Section 20 (1) (k) is there to be used according to its scope and purpose.

2.7 We nevertheless make this alternative proposal -

That Sections 4 (2), 4 (3), 4 (4) and 4 (5) be deleted.

ADULT GENERAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING BILL -GENERAL SUBMISSIONS

1.1 Tile Bill Jacks a definition of the most crucial aspect, namely that of "adult". We propose the following definition -

· "adult"means any person of above the age of 18 years old.

This accords with the provision of Section 28 (3) of the Bill of Rights and there can be no sound reason for tile omission of such a definition.

1.2 Further, the word "person" in the definition of "learner" should be amended to read "adult"

1.3 The following should be added to the definition of "centre", namely "but excludes an adult basic education class or centre, referred to in Section 21(1) (dA) of the South African Schools Act 1996 (Act No.84 of 1996)."

This exclusion is currently accommodated in Section 8 (1) of tile Bill.

1.4 We suggest that "associated" is preferable to "attached" in Section 4 (3) (b). "Centre"should be amended to "centres" in Section 6 (5). "Therefore" in Section 7 (2) (a) should read "Therefor", "devolved" in Section 7 (3) should read "devolve". '¹'Representativity" in Section (9) (e) should read "representivity". "Perform" in Section 40 (4) should read "performing". We trust that these aspects have received, or will receive attention.

2. OUR MORE SPECIFIC SUBMISSIONS
2.1 Our concern, and that of our members, and further, so we verily believe, of all governing bodies (SGB's) of public schools, centres around the provisions of Section 4 and the satellite provisions of Section 3, 13 (2), 25 (2), and 40 of the Bill.