By Thapelo Molefe
The Western Cape education department has come out strongly in defence of its implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, particularly around compulsory Grade R, teacher qualifications, language policies and school governance.
The department recently responded to questions in the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education.
Western Cape education MEC David Maynier began the session by clarifying the province’s stance on school governing bodies (SGBs).
“Our approach is certainly not to undermine school governing bodies, but to the extent that we can, to support school governing bodies to fulfil their functions,” Maynier said.
Education head Brent Walters addressed the issue of Grade R teacher qualifications. He said the province had been promoting Grade R since 2003, but the sector was long hamstrung by the national decision not to make it compulsory earlier.
“Training institutions would not have churned out Grade R teachers… because Grade R wasn’t compulsory,” Walters said.
He added that this resulted in a shortage of qualified personnel and a mix of qualified, underqualified, and unqualified teachers working in Grade R classrooms across the country.
The department conducted a comprehensive assessment of its Grade R workforce and was the first province to categorise educators into three groups – qualified, underqualified and unqualified.
Walters confirmed that engagements with tertiary institutions were underway to enable conversion courses for underqualified teachers.
Department deputy director-general Alan Meyer clarified that the 1323 Grade R teachers requesting an upgrade were underqualified, and not unqualified.
Most possess NQF Level 5 qualifications from TVET colleges, and the department is exploring bridging programmes into Bachelor of Education degrees.
“We want to support that 1323 to become fully qualified in terms of REVQ14… and be paid as a teacher within the system,” Meyer said.
However, he said 93 teachers expressed no interest in upgrading their qualifications, often citing age or lack of basic qualifications such as matric.
A further 301 teachers did not respond to the department’s survey and officials have been tasked with following up.
Meyer also addressed concerns about classroom sizes.
“We do not have learners more than one to 35 in a Grade R classroom,” he stated.
He invited evidence from anyone claiming that some classes exceeded 50 to 60 learners, assuring that the department had checked its systems and found no such cases.
The department recently issued Circular 001 of 2025, increasing the learner-teacher ratio in Grade R to a maximum of 1:35, a move aimed at absorbing more learners amid high demand.
In terms of infrastructure, every new primary school now includes dedicated Grade R classrooms as a standard feature. One such example is the newly built Blue Ridge Primary in Kraaifontein, which has four fully equipped Grade R classrooms were already in use.
Meyer said the department prided itself on its subsidy payment system, which ensured that Grade R teachers and Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres were paid timeously through the SEMA platform.
“We have built a system around that… so the ECD centre doesn’t sit without money waiting for us to pay them,” Meyer said.
The department has trained 800 Grade R teachers this year, 400 during the March holidays and another 400 in June. It plans to train another 400 in early 2026.
The WCED has conducted more than 5200 stakeholder engagements as part of its Bela mediation programme, including sessions with district officials, principals, SGB members and senior management teams.
“Training covered legal compliance, uniformity in governance, admissions… school rationalisation and the impact of Grade R,” said Walters, adding that every school was invited to participate, with sessions scheduled from the morning until evening.
“No, of course it’s not [enough], and we’re not satisfied with it,” Meyer acknowledged, referring to the 5200 participants.
He noted that the department extended the deadline to 31 July to catch more SGBs and parents who missed earlier sessions.
The department’s implementation plan focuses on ensuring compliance with Bela’s amended provisions, standardising school governance and admissions, strengthening institutional governance and implementing digital attendance tracking systems.
These include a smartphone app that enables teachers to log absenteeism and flags late submissions using colour codes for district oversight.
The department reaffirmed that all schools must submit admissions and language policies to its digital system, which allows for district-level oversight.
Meyer said circulars were issued to schools annually, outlawing practices such as requesting financial statements or deposits from parents particularly at no-fee schools as these are illegal.
He said efforts were ongoing to bring all school policies into alignment with Bela’s Section 5 (admissions) and Section 6 (language), including work with circuit managers and school management to review and refine outdated policies.
Meyer also noted significant challenges in securing lecturers to train future teachers in Afrikaans and mathematics, leading to concerns over future shortages in these subjects.
Meyer revealed that the department was developing an automated homeschooling application system. This would allow officials to assess curricula, verify parental qualifications and conduct site visits to ensure learning spaces are adequate.
On learner placement, Walters assured the committee that there are no unplaced learners for the current academic year.
“We place the learners who presented,” he said.
For the upcoming 2026 admissions cycle, policies will be finalised to reflect Bela requirements.
Meyer confirmed that no schools have been closed in the past four years, except one rural facility affected by access issues on private land. Learners were relocated nearby.
While the department maintained that significant strides had been made after members of the committee expressed concerns around equity, quality assurance, and systemic disparities.
Some raised questions about the readiness of infrastructure in rural schools, the continued use of underqualified teachers and the exclusionary practices in some historically privileged schools, particularly around language policy and admissions criteria.
There were also worries about whether digitisation efforts like the attendance tracking system were delivering measurable outcomes or masking deeper access challenges.
The committee also questioned the department’s pace and inclusivity in its training rollout, saying that the Bela Act’s transformative intentions must reflect in both policy and practice, especially for marginalised communities.
The department said it remained committed to improving access, quality and compliance in education across the province, especially amid increased demand and systemic reform.
“We want to work within [Bela’s] framework, but of course we are reliant on the regulations being finalised at DBE level,” Meyer said.
INSIDE EDUCATION
