Confusion reigns as an independent school forced to close goes to court
ACTION by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) to crack down on ”fly-by-night” independent schools operating illegally may open the GDE up to legal action.
A Pretoria-based independent school, Way to Success Academy, late last month took the GDE to court for having forced the school to close because it was not registered. Member of the Academy Sunday Ola says that the school had applied last year before it started up as a fulltime school in January: ”We know the law and we have done everything we were supposed to.”
According to the South African Schools Act, registration will only be granted by provincial education departments if the authorities are satisfied that certain criteria — such as the quality of the teaching staff and the facilities — are of a good enough standard.
However, it is not clear whether it is an inadequacy of the GDE or of the school that is responsible for the current confusion. GDE representative Rudy Matjokana insists that the Academy ”has not been granted permission [to be registered] and therefore it will not operate”. He added that, ”They have been using their company registration number as if it’s a deparmental registration number. That already tells you that someone has been short-circuiting the system.”
Ola, meanwhile, is adamant: ”Nobody knows why [we’ve been refused registration]. We have received no communication. They cannot say we don’t have quality teachers — we have them. They are supposed to communicate the reasons to us.”
Ola blames the state of affairs on ”inefficiency” in the GDE. He said the department had first claimed that ”we submitted the application forms at the wrong district — N1 instead of N3”. He argues that if this was the case, it was a simple matter for the districts to pass on the paper work to the right office. Ola further claims, ”Parents contacted the department early in the year and were assured that we were registered.” Says Ola, ”The court was full of parents. They’re absolutely confident in this school. They are so angry with the department and are preparing their own protest.”
If the GDE cannot come up with a satisfactory justification, says Ola, he intends to sue the government for financial losses.
Matjokana says, ”A school can only operate if we’ve given them permission before hand to register.” He says a proposal for the independent school should be submitted, before the school actually comes into existence.
However, Ola counters this argument by pointing out that the department would never register an empty lot which was a proposed school. A location needs to be secured in advance, and teaching staff hired before their qualifications can be sent to the department for scrutiny. ”You have to operate before you register,” argues Ola. ”You find me a school that was registered before it started operating. This is a mix-up. I’m telling you the department has a lot of cases on its hands.”
Way to Success Academy will remain closed until the GDE has responded to the request for registration.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, March 6, 2000.
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