Unregistered school under threat

THE provincial education department has brought an urgent high court interdict to stop Eduplanet from operating an unregistered independent school in Port Elizabeth.

This is a step in the department’s war on unregistered schools in the province.

While Eduplanet says pupils flock to it due to the poor performance of government schools, the education department says attending unregistered and unmonitored schools where standards may not be up to scratch puts the educational future of children at risk.

The department wants the Grahamstown High Court to declare as unlawful the operation of the school and to interdict the company from continuing until it is registered.

If it succeeds, about 300 children will have to be urgently placed in other schools.

MEC Mandla Makupula says the law requires registration of independent schools.

The department only registered schools if it was satisfied their standards were appropriate, that admission policies did not discriminate on grounds of race and that they complied with other grounds for registration.

He said operating a school without it being registered was an offence punishable by three months’ imprisonment or a hefty fine.

Makupula says the department’s attention was drawn to the illegally operated school by the media.

On inspection it was found pupils registered with the school at a cost of R2 500, with fees R1 500 a month.

He said Eduplanet’s director Charl Meyer had informed the department he intended to register but had not yet submitted the application forms and documentation to the department.

Makupula said he had informed Meyer that he could not operate as a school until it was registered.

But Meyer seemed not to appreciate the seriousness of the situation, claiming to have operated unregistered schools in other provinces.

Eduplanet had first started operating in July with 50 learners and by January had grown to 300.

In mid-January, the department had informed a meeting of parents at the school that it was unregistered and its operation unlawful.

Meyer says in a replying affidavit that he has a passion for education and established several independent schools “in recognition of the state of education in the country and the plight of deprived communities who have been denied, even to this day, the right to basic education”.

Judge Clive Plasket reserved judgment.