‘Cambridge’ school accused of hoodwinking pupils
MEL Tehini happily forked out R2 983 a month to send her daughter, Cassidee, to a private school in Johannesburg, because she wanted her to get a Cambridge education.
But she was horrified when she discovered recently that the Learning Strategies International College in Northcliff had been banned a year ago by the UK-based Cambridge International Examinations from administering its exams.
Tehini and a group of other parents have now removed their children from the school. They claim the principal, Marc Hanscombe, de- liberately failed to inform them that it was no longer registered with Cambridge.
Parents paid R5 100 in exam fees last year for three subjects in the mistaken belief that their children were writing papers set by Cambridge University, only to discover they had been set and marked by teachers at the school.
Other allegations levelled at Hanscombe include:
Charging exam fees of R1 700 a subject, although those levied by the British Council, which administers the exams on behalf of the UK university in South Africa, were R800; and
Teachers being forced to inflate pupils’ marks so they could qualify for an incentive bonus of R1 000 a month.
Tehini said her daughter achieved between 80% and 100% in her class tests, but she was devastated when she found out that her Cambridge results were dismal.
Pupils privately wrote the Cambridge exams in April, and Tehini said her daughter scored only 49% for maths, 57% for business studies and 57% for English.
She said some teachers told her that Hanscombe had forced them “to inflate marks” in class tests.
Parents found out that the school had been deregistered by Cambridge International Examinations only when Hanscombe told them to register their children privately for the exams with the British Council in South Africa.
Cambridge International Examinations, in an e-mailed response, said the school had been deregistered. It declined to give reasons.
Spokeswoman Adele Williams said the school was not allowed to use its name, trademarks or enter students for its exams, although pupils may privately sit for those exams.
Hanscombe said his school was deregistered only because one of the tuition centres had used the Cambridge logo without permission.
He admitted charging exam fees of R1 700 each for life skills, Afrikaans and commerce, but denied creating the impression that they were Cambridge subjects.
“We hosted the exams and we marked them. We also wanted the kids to treat those subjects as seriously as they would the Cambridge subjects,” he said. “Why would I want teachers to inflate marks? How would I even do that?”
He said the current Cambridge curriculum was being phased out and all pupils at the school would be following the Basic Education Department syllabus from next year.