South Africa’s legislative assembly has passed an important education bill that could see parents face jail terms if their children were not registered in school.
Under the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA), the guardians could face up to 12 months in prison if their children were truant, or if they were not enrolled when they reached school age.
Bela will additionally, introduce a ban on corporal punishment in all schools.
This will reportedly be the biggest education overhaul since the termination of apartheid in 1994.
The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), had said that the bill will change the country’s education system, to address historical and present challenges.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, DA, has castigated the action, saying that it gives the state too much control over schools and would potentially lead to the collapse of education.
The political party had led a protest during the vote and has promised to take the government to the constitutional court if it became law.
The ANC however, has a substantial majority representatives in parliament and the bill was supported by 223 MPs, with 83 MPs voting against it on Thursday, October 26.
An education expert in the country, Mary Metcalf had told SABC News that she was in agreement with Bela, and that there should be repercussions for parents who failed to send their children to school.
Earlier this year, a study discovered that 8 out of 10 South African school children struggled to read by the age of 10.
