THE Eastern Cape MEC for Education, Mandla Makuphula, has ordered a bogus school in Port Elizabeth to shut down.
This is after one of the parents confronted the school principal about the legitimacy of the school. But the principal could not give him straight answers instead he demanded school fees. The school is conducted at Eveready battery company.A gatvol parent confronted the acting principal and removed his son from the unregistered school EduPlanet, which is located in an industrial area in a building that is also used by a battery manufacturing company.
Angry Ncamisile Harmans (47) from Motherwell NU 6 told Daily Sun: “I heard about his school late last year and I registered my son on Monday for grade 6.
“However, I became suspicious when the principal said he only accepted cash payments.
“On Tuesday I asked him if the school was registered with the department and he failed to give a clear answer. On the same day I went to the department and I was shocked to find out his school was not on the system.
“I have since taken my son to a proper school now.”
The school’s director, Carl Meyer, defended himself and said: “There are many unregistered independent schools in the metro.”
He said they were waiting for the municipality to sign their rezoning application, which has been approved.
Makupula slammed the claims: “There is no way a school can be run in an industrial environment and it is not permissible by the department to do so.”
Malibongwe Mtima, the provincial education spokesman, told Daily Sun: “The MEC visited the school on Wednesday at 6am and ordered the principal to shut it down because it was illegal and the education provided was meaningless.
“The department will call a meeting with parents on Saturday to explain their decision. So far we have not decided what will happen to the principal as we are busy with our investigation.”
“The education in this province is very bad that is why I left Gauteng for this region to improve the quality of education. I have been running independent schools since 1991 and I had established many schools in almost all provinces. But I have sold them because I would not travel anymore. Here parents understand my mission, however some of them give me problems,” he said.
