EduPlanet still operating
PUPILS played outside while others reported for class at EduPlanet independent school yesterday as the institution remained open despite Wednesday’s high court order that it be shut down.
The Struandale school, operating since July, was ordered by the Grahamstown High Court to close down after the Eastern Cape Department of Education discovered two weeks ago that it was unregistered.
The department brought the urgent court interdict to stop EduPlanet from operating, as a first step in its battle against unregistered schools.
The school is one of seven in the province that are unregistered.
Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the department had been advised not to reveal the names of other unregistered schools in the city.
He said EduPlanet’s fate now lay in the hands of the justice system.
Should parents or the school wish to file an appeal with the courts, due process would take place, Mtima said.
If no appeal was filed, it would be up to the courts to enforce the order of closure.
Parents are in a panic, saying the school had failed to bring them up to date.
Members of a parent committee, started two weeks ago to oppose the closure, declined to comment yesterday.
A parent with children in grades 10 and 4, who asked not be named, said he was extremely worried.
“This is all I have been thinking about all day because I do not have an alternative plan for my children,” he said.
He said he had not checked whether the school was registered as he did not know how.
“As a parent, I am confused and I am at a crossroads. My children cannot miss a year’s schooling.
“I also cannot be sure that we are not wasting a year anyway as the school is not recognised. “I am just worried,” he said. Another parent, whose child is in Grade 8, said attempts to get clarity from the principal were in vain as he was not at the school.
“I am flabbergasted. I did not know it would come to this.
“The government can’t shut a school down with no alternative.”
School principal Charl Meyer could not be contacted.