300 pupils left in the lurch

Department obtains urgent interdict for closure of unregistered Edu Planet

ABOUT 300 Edu Planet pupils will need to find alternative schools urgently after the Grahamstown High Court effectively shut down the Port Elizabeth independent school yesterday because it remained unregistered.

The provincial Department of Education brought the urgent court interdict to stop Edu Planet from operating, as a first step in its battle against unregistered schools.

The department stated in court papers that the educational future of children attending unregistered and unmonitored schools, where standards might not be up to scratch, was at risk.

Parent Confidence Mandizha, whose child is in Grade 8 at Edu Planet, said he was shocked to hear about the judgment.

“When I went to the school two weeks ago after hearing the news they told me they were in the process of registering it,” he said.

“Where are our kids supposed to go now. I applied at more than six schools and I was turned down.

“Edu Planet was the only one to respond at the last minute.

“I don’t know what to do now and I hope the Department of Education can assist with placing our kids in a school.”

Mandizha is one of 300 parents who will have to forfeit registration fees amounting to R900, along with two months’ school fees worth R1 600.

Edu Planet claimed in court papers it was entitled to operate and was doing so lawfully, even though it was unregistered.

In the interest of what it described as the children’s constitutional right to an education, it asked the court to suspend the operation of any interdict against it for 12 months to give it an opportunity to complete the registration process.

But Judge Clive Plasket refused to do so, questioning whether he could suspend an interdict in circumstances in which the conduct complained of amounted to an ongoing criminal offence.

In a hard-hitting judgment, he said the SA Schools Act was clear that an independent school must be registered with the provincial education department.

To do so, it must meet certain criteria, including certain educational and other standards.

The act made it a criminal offence for a school to operate without being registered.

Plasket said Edu Planet had operated since July in a completely unregulated manner.

He said it believed it could operate with impunity despite not having filed an application for registration and the property it operated from not being zoned for education purposes.

Edu Planet director Charl Meyer had only finally applied for registration in the middle of last month.

And provincial Education MEC Mandla Makupula had indicated in court papers that even this application was defective.

Plasket said the pupils had, in effect, been enticed to register and their parents had been required to pay substantial amounts of money under false pretences.

“They would have been entitled to assume that Edu Planet complied with the law and was registered,” he said.

Plasket said Meyer’s approach to the requirement of registration disclosed a disturbing degree of contempt for the constitution and the law, and for the rights of students and their parents.

He said the department had acted properly and with urgency to protect the public interest and to safeguard the rule of law.

“It would undermine them and the rule of law to allow a blatant illegality to continue,” Plasket said.

“To decline to come to their aid, even on a temporary basis, would amount to this court abrogating its duty to enforce the law.”

He said the department had been at pains to identify and establish possible placements for the Edu Planet pupils at other registered independent schools in the district.

Plasket said Meyer was unrepentant and unapologetic in court papers about contravening the law.

He ordered Edu Planet to pay the costs of the department’s application on a punitive scale to show the court’s displeasure with this conduct.

Education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said: “We want to ensure that we keep the pace of identifying and taking action against these schools.

“We also want to protect poor people from this daylight robbery.”