Pretoria — The Education Laws Amendment Act (Act 31 of 2007) was passed by parliament and signed into law in December 2007.

Despite its innocuous sounding name, the new law has far reaching consequences for the continued transformation of education, which affect everybody who has a stake in this national enterprise.

This piece of legislation attracted a lot of public attention for its provisions of random drug testing and search procedures for dangerous weapons - important elements in our attempts to support schools and teachers in the challenging tasks they face.

However the major systemic change relates to the performance of schools, which will in future be regulated on a much tighter basis.

All schools will be required to develop an annual report in regard to their academic performance and the effective use of resources.

In addition, schools identified as "under-performing" in terms of these reports, will be required to prepare a plan detailing how they intend to improve.

This plan is to be presented in the first instance to the parents of the school for approval, and thereafter submitted to the Head of Department.

The school will then be required to report on a regular basis about their performance in implementing the plan.

A number of steps are provided for if it is clear the school is not improving, and the MEC of a province is now required to report to the Minister on steps being taken regarding any under-performing school.

This approach puts parents firmly in charge of the "quest for quality", and invites a real partnership on this matter, in line with the ANC resolutions of Polo wane.

The second major thrust of the Act is in the provision of Norms and Standards for Basic Infrastructure and Capacity in public schools.

This complements the previous part of the Act: it ensures that as we hold schools accountable, the Department of Education will provide them with the kind of buildings, facilities and other resources that enable them to meet their performance targets.

This signals a profound shift in the way resources are allocated to schools, and will ensure that even the poorest schools have the minimum provisions to enable them to provide quality education.

In the context of concurrent functions, these norms will have to be introduced in a progressive manner, since it is obviously not possible just to declare that every school should immediately have a library.

But by setting such a standard as a norm, we have a target to work towards, and can set deadlines for full compliance.

This will go a long way towards eradicating the most severe legacy of apartheid - the under-provision of educational facilities for poor, Black learners.

The Act also provides for the establishment of a National Education and Training Council as an advisory body on educational matters, and which will now be given effect.

Loud-mouthed cynics who did not believe the Minister would do so will be forced to eat their words, and with some humility make nominations for this Council.

The full Act is published in the Government Gazette of 31 December 2007, and is available on the Education Department website.

All stakeholders are encouraged to acquaint themselves with what the representatives of the people, through our national parliament, has decided.