LISTEN: Bogus Johannesburg school leaves matrics in the lurch

947’s Anele and The Club chats to parent Riaz Sallie.

Listen below:

Imagine enrolling your child into a school and when it finally comes time to register for matric exams, you find out the school has been operating illegally and is unregistered.

This has been the case for learners attending Pre-Primary Achievers and Tutor Centre in Johannesburg.

Sallie enrolled his son in grades 10 and 11 and he is currently completing grade 12 at the centre.

When he asked about exam timetables and numbers, the centre replied it was partnering with another centre for matric exam registrations.

“It was then that I sort of became suspicious…  I and another parent decided to jump ship… [but] we saw that when the other centre started sending through the registration documents to the online department, it was discovered that there were no marks that were uploaded onto any of the systems, therefore rendering matric null and void.”

– Riaz Sallie

“The last records that the Department of Education has for my son is grade nine, which tallies up to when he left the other school… [the] feedback has basically been that your child has to go back to grade 10..."

– Riaz Sallie

Gauteng Department of Education Spokesperson Steve Mabona confirms the ‘school’ is not registered.

“We received these complaints four weeks ago. We sent our officials to the site and they discovered that it wasn’t a school, it was a tutoring centre, which has registered as an ECD (Early Childhood Development)… We instructed them to stop teaching.”

– Steve Mabona, spokesperson – Gauteng Department of Education

Parents affected by unregistered schools are encouraged to come forward and contact the department.  

“If the parents say a child is in grade 12, the school will then assess… whether the child is competent to be in grade 12.”

– Steve Mabona, spokesperson – Gauteng Department of Education

"We’ll interact with all those affected parents… We close many illegal schools but we have an obligation to place those children in our schools unless the parents decide not to.”

– Steve Mabona, spokesperson – Gauteng Department of Education

Mabona says these cases are common among parents who register for homeschooling but instead take their children to a tutoring centre.

“They are not allowed to operate… they are not legit. All tutoring centres are not legit.”

– Steve Mabona, spokesperson – Gauteng Department of Education

The team attempted to contact the Pre-Primary Achievers and Tutor Centre on several occasions to no avail.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.