Withholding the year-end reports of pupils unable to pay school fees is illegal, the Eastern Cape education department told South African Broadcasting Corporation news on Friday.
Parents in the province have reportedly gone to court to force 10 schools to hand over their children’s report cards.
An amendment to the South African Schools Act in January last year makes it illegal for pupils to be marginalised, said the department’s deputy director general of systems planning and monitoring, Firoz Patel.
The Act prohibits schools from denying pupils text books, keeping them out of school and withholding their reports.
”If we do receive reports on these matters, we will take it up,” Patel said.
”As the department, we urge all parents subjected to this in public schools to please ensure that they report the matter to their local education authorities … then we can take the matter up,” he said. — Sapa