Two hundred learners in Mpumalanga have found themselves in a difficult situation after discovering that the school they enrolled at is not registered with the department.
The learners are now concerned that they will not be able to write the final exam because the school never registered them.
Mpumalanga Education Department Head of Exam, Chukudu Manyabeane said learners should rather enroll at schools they are familiar with.
“They can be assisted there, not at that building which we don’t recognise as a school. That institution is undermining the policies that are existing in the department. They don’t want to register but they want to call themselves a school without registering”
In early October, Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi paid a visit to illegal schools in Ivory Park.
The MEC said many of the schools were aware that they were operating illegally and didn’t have proper documentation.
The schools had allegedly been given time to apply and register with the department, but they failed to do so.
“There are some schools that have operated in this area, we gave them an extension to sort out their documents. Unfortunately, they’ve not done that so we have brought the law enforcement agencies,”
“They are breaking every law that we have in the country. They don’t have people that are properly documented to be in our country, they don’t have municipal documents, the classrooms are not conducive for learning, they are not following the proper curriculum. The infrastructure of the school is in a bad state”
Many of the illegal schools did not cater to learners in grades 11 and 12. This is because they would need to have proper documents to provide education for learners in grade 12.
This meant many learners were left without a school once they reach those grades, leaving them with very few choices once they pass grade 10.
The more you understand yourself, the more silence there is, the healthier you are. —Maxime Lagacé
