The Democratic Alliance has challenged Education Minister Naledi Pandor to back its private member’s Bill defining ”basic education”.
The Bill in the name of DA MP George Boinamo was submitted to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete on Thursday.
Briefing the media at Parliament, Boinamo said current legislation did not provide a legal definition of what constituted a basic education.
”Without a definition it is impossible to determine the extent to which the state has complied with its Constitutional duty to provide a basic education or to hold it to account in this regard,” he said.
The DA hoped the Bill would remedy the situation and allow Parliament and civil society to properly monitor the standard of basic education and to evaluate the government’s performance.
The Bill was based on international best practice, in particular the work done by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, that stated that basic education should be available, accessible, acceptable, and adaptable.
”The DA’s view is shared by the Human Rights Commission and it is on and around these four themes that the DA’s definition is based,” Boinamo said.
”It is time the government took responsibility for its failure to provide many thousands of children with a basic education.”
Parliament could empower citizens whose right to a basic education was being violated by providing them with a definition of that right, and giving them a clear, easily understandable basis on which to challenge the government and oblige it to uphold their rights.
”I today challenge the Minister of Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, to give her public backing to this Bill, its intention and the need to set definitive and measurable standards against which this government’s performance can be measured.
”If government refuses to accept that challenge and responsibility it can only mean that it does not want to be held to account or that it has failed and does not want to be held responsible,” Boinamo said. – Sapa