Teachers to be charged for fraudulent reports

TEACHERS at Senaoane Secondary School in Soweto will be charged for issuing fraudulent report cards to pupils.

Gauteng education department spokesperson Charles Phahlane said they were sending letters to Oupa Tsotetsi, who has been the school's principal for more than 21 years, and four teachers, asking them why they think they should not be suspended.

According to the department, 56 pupils at the school are wrongly in Grade 11 and have to go back to Grade 10, while 13 pupils are wrongly in Grade 10 and have to be promoted to Grade 11. Four pupils are supposed to be in Grade 12 .

Two pupils tried to commit suicide after they were told to go back to their previous grades. But Tsotetsi said he was not responsible for the bungle.

"I was not involved in this. I did not even sign any of their report cards," he said.

Tsotetsi, who has not been going to work because of ill-health, has since applied for early retirement, which will be effective from the end of May.

The department has sent an interim principal to the school. "We received a letter that he is not well, and that is the only reason we have sent an interim principal," Phahlane said. Parents have been camping outside the premises since Monday because they do not want the caretaker principal and the demotion of their children.

Yesterday they refused the principal entry to the school.School governing body deputy chairperson Nomawethu Dlamsha said: "We do not want him. We also want our children to remain in the grades that they were promoted to."