City private school operating ‘illegally’

PARENTS with children at New Park Primary School in Kimberley feel that they have been left in the lurch after they discovered that the school is not registered with the Northern Cape Department of Education.

The principal and owner of the school, Denise Blight, said yesterday that while she had applied for registration, the process had been “dragged out” by the Department of Education and the Sol Plaatje Municipality.

“We started with the registration process in 2018 before the primary school started operating. However, the process has been dragged out by the Department of Education as well as the municipality, who had to approve the rezoning of the premises. We have been going back and forth with the process for many months,” said Blight.

She added that because it was taking so long, she decided to go ahead and start operating the school.

Blight said that the pupils were “thriving” in the smaller classes offered by the school.

“We do not understand why the registration process is taking so long to complete. The school is following the Caps system, which is recognised by the department and is the same curriculum that other government schools follow. Both our teachers are qualified, with many years of experience at government schools.”

Blight said she branched out the primary school from her daycare centre.

“We have been operating the daycare, Noddy’s, for more than 30 years. We started the primary school when we were approached by some parents. We started with Grade 1 last year and introduced Grade 2 this year,” she said.

Parents of pupils at the school said yesterday that they had found out recently during a meeting at the school that the facility was not registered.

The spokesperson for the Northern Cape Department of

Education, Lehuma Ntuane, said the department was aware of the application but not that the school was already operating.

“We are aware of the application for New Park Primary, however, the application had some flaws in it. We were not aware that it was operating without having the required licence. This means that the school has been in breach of the South African Schools Act,” said Ntuane.

Ntuane said parents would have to approach the district office to assist with the placement of pupils.

“We are not sure which curriculum the school has been using as it has been operating as an island. The parents will have to come forward and they will be assisted by the district office. We will, however, have to evaluate the pupils as there is a certain level of work the pupils need to have completed and understand in order to progress to the next grade,” he said.

Ntuane said the school would have to close its doors in the meantime.