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The Education Portfolio Committee welcomes the publication of the South African Schools Bill. This is a major step forward in the construction of a new schooling system in South Africa, in line with the objectives of the Reconstruction and Development Programme and Education White Paper No. 2. The Portfolio committee would therefore like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister and his department on the publication of this bill. The passing of this bill will change forever the face of apartheid schooling and take us irrevocably forward to a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and equitable system of schooling.

We are also pleased that this bill has been subjected to the widest ever process of consultation in the history of legislation affecting schools in South Africa. I am sure that this consultation process must have contributed significantly to the quality of the bill now before us.

We would like to announce that public hearings on the Schools Bill will be held on September 2,3 and 4, 1996 at Parliament (E249). These hearings will be held jointly by the National Assembly Education Portfolio Committee and the Education Select Committee of the Senate. We have invited a representative of national organisations, including teacher unions, student organisations, and other educational organisations and associations to present oral evidence before the joint committees. All other interested parties and stakeholders are invited to make written submissions and for these submissions to reach the Committee on or before 6 September 1996. After the hearings the bill will then be fully debated in the Portfolio Committee and the Select Committee, with a view to passing it before parliament adjourns this year.

We would like to encourage the various stakeholders and interested parties to make full use of this opportunity to contribute to the finalisation and passage of this bill. We would like to use the process of public hearings and written submissions to reach as many stakeholders as possible, particularly those interested parties who might not have had the opportunity to participate in the ministerial consultation processes.

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