Public comment on four draft BELA regulations closes on 5 September

Parents, teachers, school governing bodies and other interested South Africans have until 23:59 on 5 September to comment on four draft instruments supporting the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act.

The Department of Basic Education has published three sets of draft regulations and a related notice. The proposals deal with school governing body elections, payments for additional duties, teacher-development facilities and the National Education Information System.

The BELA Act is already in force. The current consultation concerns practical rules intended to guide how selected provisions are implemented.

School governing body elections

The draft notice proposes a national framework for governing body elections. It provides for a traditional election meeting, voting throughout a designated election day, or secure electronic voting where a school has the necessary capacity and safeguards.

A separate draft addresses additional remuneration or benefits for state-employed educators and other qualifying employees who perform approved extra work. The department says such payments should not be made informally or without oversight.

Teacher centres and education information

Another set of regulations proposes minimum norms and standards for provincial teacher development institutes and district teacher development centres. It focuses on access to functional, safe and inclusive professional-development facilities.

The fourth instrument covers the National Education Information System. It proposes a framework for collecting, checking, storing, protecting and using information about learners, teachers, schools and education resources.

The department says reliable information is needed to identify where classrooms, textbooks, educators and other resources are required.

How comments can be submitted

Comments on the four instruments may be emailed to the dedicated addresses published by the department: SGBElections@dbe.gov.za, Section38A@dbe.gov.za, TeacherDevelopment@dbe.gov.za and NEIAS@dbe.gov.za.

Submissions can also be delivered by hand to the Department of Basic Education at 222 Struben Street in Pretoria, or posted to Private Bag X895, Pretoria, 0001.

The department's official call-for-comments page carries the draft documents and relevant Government Gazette notices. Submissions received before the deadline will be considered before the regulations are finalised.