BELA Bill

The BELA Bill (Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill) is advocating an unbiblical view of the education of children. This Bill will have an enormous impact on the education landscape with regards to schools and homeschooling.

According to God, the parent is responsible for the education of his/her child (Eph. 6:4; Deut. 6) and not the government. Parents should be able to freely use other people, like teachers, to help them educate their children. And parents should be able to organise into schools as they see fit or educate their children at home if they want to.

What can you do to oppose this Bill?

Here you can see the progress of the BELA Bill since its introduction: https://pmg.org.za/bill/1055/

Here are just some notes on the progress of the BILL:

2024

  • Here you can download the BELA Bill >>>
  • The president signed the BELA Bill into law on 16 September 2024 (and the Bill came into operation on 20 December 2024).
  • Some of the concerns
    • Section 4 requires children from Grade R age to go to school.
      • There should not be a required age, the parent must decide.
    • Section 5 requires the Head of Department to approve the admission and language policy of a public school.
      • Parents may get together and choose a governing body to manage the education of children, hence it is even in this Bill called a public school and not a state school.
      • The parents, and therefore the governing body, must be able to determine the admission and language policy, and also the syllabus at a public school.
      • Until now, School Governing Bodies have had the leeway to develop their schools’ admission and language policies but the BELA Bill requires that they submit these policies to provincial departments for approval.
    • Section 35 requires that parents who choose to educate their child at home need to apply to the Head of Department to register their child for home education.
      • No such application must be necessary.
      • God has already given the right, the freedom, the responsibility to parents to choose which ever way they want to educate their children in the fear of Him
    • Section 39 gives power to the government to manage learner pregnancy
      • The parent must manage learner pregnancy, and never may anyone (including a young girl) kill a baby in the womb.
  • The BELA Bill passed the NCOP (National Council of Provinces) after being passed at the NA (National Assembly in 2023).
  • The BELA Bill (27 September 2023) graphically summarised >>>See<<<
  • Good conversation summarising the problems with the BELA Bill >>>Watch<<<
  • The problem with Clause 35 >>>
  • This is the Alliance for Biblical Freedoms’ (Allfreedoms) comment on the bill during the public hearings >>>Read here<<<

2023

This was the version of the BELA Bill at the National Assembly: BELA Bill (10 January 2022)

Here are some feedback on the public hearings which took place in 2023 while the BELA Bill was at the National Assembly (NA):

Here are some biblical arguments made against the BELA Bill in some of the public hearings:

Memes: