Illegal school sets 'matrics' back three years

Twelve pupils who thought they were doing grade 12 are in limbo after they were told they could not register for matric exams because their private school is registered as an early childhood dvelopment (ECD) centre.

The last day for pupils to register for this year's matric examinations was yesterday, according to the Gauteng department of education, but the pupils at Pre-Primary Achievers (PPA) in Florida on the West Rand missed the deadline because their school is not registered with the national department of basic education.

The plight of the pupils was highlighted on Anele and the Club Show on 947 by frustrated parents who called in for help.

Parents told Sowetan their children might be moved to lower grades after the department told them they did not have their children's schooling records. As a result, they will have to assess them and determine if they should be in grade 12 or moved to lower grades.

One of the frustrated parents, Reeyaz Sallie, said he felt like he has wasted three years of his son's life. He said he had taken his son to the school as it was an independent one and he believed classes would not be full like they would in a government school. He said he paid R1,500 fees monthly, excluding textbooks and stationery. "I was led to believe that this is a legal school and that the children have to go in daily and there is teaching taking place," said Sallie.

“My concern is that I have wasted three years of my child’s life. These learners will be required to do a baseline assessment, which is when the department will decide where it puts them. My understanding is that maybe some will have to go back to grade 10 and some grade 11 but not directly to grade 12. I had plans for him to further his studies [next year] but those have to be delayed," he said.

Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona told Sowetan Pre-Primary Achievers was not registered as an independent school but as an ECD centre.

"However, it was discovered that the centre also operates as a tutor centre for grades 1-12 learners who only come to the centre three times a week doing online distance learning," Mabona said.

"Consequently, the department instructed the owner to cease operating the tutor centre and [we] will continue to monitor closely the implementation of the instructions. Accordingly, we have placed learners of parents who came forward; we will assist those who need to register to write matric. We have started to interact with affected parents. A school that is illegal is one that is not registered with the department of education."

However, the principal of the centre, Elise Ferris, told Sowetan that she has heard reports that her school is bogus, and that the claims were false. She confirmed that the school was registered as an ECD centre and said that there were no primary nor high school pupils at the institution.

“I am not worried by the reports because I know the reports are untrue. We are not a bogus institution ... we are just an ECD centre.

"We don’t have much older students here; they were registered with Hyperion distance learning. The department of education was here two weeks ago and again this morning and they didn’t find anything wrong.”

The nightmare for the pupils and their parents began early this year when they enquired from Ferris what the plan was to register for the matric exams as they were the first cohort from the school.

The parents told Sowetan that Ferris said she did not have an EMIS number, which enables one to operate or run a school. She allegedly told them she would have to  partner with another centre, the Hyperion long-distance learning [centre], for the registration of matric exams.

Hyperion CEO Naeem Mohamed confirmed to Sowetan that Ferris approached it to try and register grade 12 pupils.

"Our support consultant advised her that we don't deal with centres, we only deal with parents directly. Thereafter, parents applied directly via our online portal. We contacted parents telephonically to request proper documentation to be uploaded. [But] the report cards they uploaded were not issued by a registered institution," Mohamed said.

Mohamed said they rejected the applications on the grounds that the submitted report cards were from an institution that was not registered.

"We wish to clarify that we have no affiliation with PPA," he said.

While Ferris said she was only operating an ECD centre, Sallie said his son has told him there was only one classroom for all the grades. The son also told him that Ferris was the only teacher at the school.

Another parent said she realised something was wrong when the marks of her daughter, who used to average 60%, suddenly shot up to 90% after joining the school.

Karen Damons said while she initially thought those were the benefits of a private school, she started getting worried when her daughter told her they had one teacher for all the subjects. "I got more suspicious when my daughter would tell me, 'Mom, it’s only Ms Ferris teaching us. There are no other tutors'."

This article has been updated to include a credit to Anele and the Club Show on 947. We apologise for error of omission in an earlier version – Editor

SowetanLIVE