Education Laws Amendment Bill: Final Mandates & adoption

EDUCATION AND RECREATION SELECT COMMITTEE
14 November 2007
EDUCATION LAWS AMENDMENT BILL: FINAL MANDATES & ADOPTION

Chairperson: Mr B Tolo (ANC, Mpumalanga)

Documents handed out:
Education Laws Amendment Bill [B 33B - 2007]
Final Manadates of the following Provincies :
KwaZulu Natal,Limpopo,Western Province,Mpumalanga,Free State,Gauteng,Northern Cape

Audio recording of meeting

SUMMARY
The Committee met to vote on the Education Laws Amendment Bill. Each province presented their Final Mandates. Certain legal issues within the Bill were clarified by the Department of Education. All provinces present voted in favour of the Bill and it was adopted by the Committee, with amendments.

MINUTES
The Chairperson opened the floor by asking each province to read out their mandates and state if they were supporting the Bill, and clarified legal concerns that stemmed in the meeting.

Gauteng Final Mandate
Ms F Mazibuko (ANC, Gauteng) stated that some issues needed legal clarity but others need political engagement.

North West Final Mandate
The North West delegate indicated that their province agreed with the Bill.

Western Cape Final Mandate
Ms H Lamoela (DA, Western Cape) indicated that her province supported the Bill. She expressed concern with the none performing schools. There was a shift of learners from none performing schools to performing schools; which in turn created undue pressure on those schools

The Chair asked if the above issue was mentioned in the Bill, and the member asserted that is was not. She was stating why it was not on mandate.

Mpumalanga Final mandate
The province agreed with the Bill, without amendments.

KwaZulu-Natal Final Mandate
The province decided to defer voting on the Bill until it had received sight of the amendments.

Free State Final Mandate
The province agreed with the Bill, without amendments.

Limpopo Final Mandate
The province supported the Bill.

The Chair stated that all provinces supported the Bill. The Committee would now consider the amendments proposed to the Bill.

Motion of Desirability
The Chair read the Motion of Desirability, to which Members agreed.

Voting
Clauses 1 to 4, 6
Members agreed to the clauses, without amendments.

Clause 5
The clause Line 44 was changed to read ‘The minister after consultation with the council of education may by regulation, prescribe minimum uniform
Pg 4 line 4 was changed to read ‘sports and recreational’

Members agreed with the amendments

Clause 7
The Chair asked Ms X Mdludlu (Principle State Advisor) for her input on the proposed amendments to this clause.

Ms Mdludlu agreed with the amendments.

The Chair asked if the principle was covered in testing of an individual learner.

Mr S Nawa (Department of Education: Legal Advisor) responded that the principal was covered by safety regulations.

Ms Mathabathe (Parliamentary Legal Advisor) agreed that it was covered extensively. It thus prevented the problem of victimisation of students, as discussed in the Committee’s previous meeting.

Members greed it must read ‘group of learners’ for consistency, so as to avoid the dangers in targeting a particular student.

Clause 8 – 27
The Committee agreed to the clauses, as amended.

The Chair noted that the Committee had passed the Education Laws Amendment Bill, with amendments.

Adoption of minutes
Members proposed the postponement of its minutes of the meeting held on 10 October, as they had not yet had time to consider the document.

The meeting was adjourned.