Bela: equity or overreach?

Bill's top-down approach raises governance concerns.

- Tara Roos

OUTCOMES: BIG SPEND ON EDUCATION IS NOT REAPING THE REWARDS.

As South Africa prepares to engage with the world at the United Nations' inaugural Summit of the Future today and tomorrow, attention is naturally turning to the country's progress on the 2030 Agenda and its 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).

For South Africa, a nation grappling with a host of socioeconomic challenges, one goal stands out at this moment - SDG 4, focused on ensuring quality education for all.

The Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill is being framed as a legislative leap toward this goal. Positioned as a bold reform to modernise the country's deeply unequal education system, the Bill promises to address governance, admissions, language policy and pupil safety.

It even claims to align South Africa with the global education targets set out by the UN. But the question that lingers is whether this ambitious legislative move is a genuine step toward educational equity or merely bureaucratic overreach cloaked in high-minded ideals.

South Africa's education system is, without question, in a state of crisis. Despite the government allocating around 6.6% of its GDP to education - one of the highest levels globally according to the World Bank - the outcomes remain nothing short of abysmal.