Government warns of education fraudsters

Unsuspecting students risk being duped by bogus institutions and ending up with unrecognised qualifications.

They pay for tuition‚ completely unaware that the colleges at which they are registered are not accredited – and that the qualifications issued by the institutions are therefore worthless.

There have also been numerous reports of people who intentionally include qualifications they don’t possess on their CVs in order to fraudulently gain employment. Following several qualification scandals in recent months‚ the government on Sunday used its Twitter account to warn 2018 matriculants about bogus colleges.

The government went on to provide a link to a website where parents and learners can check if a college is accredited by the higher education and training department.

The cautionary note is certainly justified‚ considering the following fake qualification scandals that have made headlines in recent months.

In December 2018‚ the Hawks confirmed the arrest of two people posing as teachers in Mpumalanga.

Sibongile Khuzwayo and Nonjabulo Mabuza appeared at the Wakkerstroom periodical court on fraud charges and were granted R3‚000 bail.

In November 2018‚ after UK law enforcement caught up with a foreigner who successfully pretended to be a psychiatrist for 22 years‚ authorities set about investigating the qualifications of 3‚000 foreign nationals employed in the country’s health sector.

In August 2018‚ the higher education and training department recommended exposing bogus colleges on a government website.

The department made the suggestion in the draft National Qualifications Framework Amendment Bill‚ which aims to clamp down on unaccredited qualifications.

SA’s education quality control council Umalusi warned about websites that target students who failed matric. The websites promise to issue students with a certificate that shows better results and reflects a “pass” on the qualifications database.

Unfortunately‚ this is simply a scam to con desperate people out of their money.