The BELA Bill: Not all that Pretty Editor Picks Education Highlighted South Africa by ANN Reporter - 13th Jun 202213th Jun 2022 And not all about homeschooling, as they’d have you believe… In South Africa, homeschooling has only really been ‘a thing’ since 1996 when it was legalised through the South African Schools Act (84 of 1996). At that time, a mere 50 families were home-schooling. These days it’s estimated at around 120,000 – though we suspect it’s way more, especially after the past two years of draconian Covid measures in schools where a good many parents removed their children from educational institutions to home school then instead. So, most home-schoolers have been aware of the looming Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill for quite some time. After all, the process started in 2013 and has been an ongoing debate for several years. They have known