The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) confirmed that Focus Academy Kurasha is not registered with and has thus been operating illegally.
This follows after residents of Nellmapius, with the help of police, shut down an illegal school operating from an RDP house.
Police arrested two people during the closure of the school in Nellmapius Ext 6.
Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson, Steve Mabona said it must be noted that the said school was operating in a clandestine manner.
Mabona said necessary processes are underway to ensure the illegal school ceases to operate.
“These schools make it difficult for the department to account for the education of learners. Sometimes parents insist on taking their children to these schools despite efforts to educate them differently,” said Mabona.
He said it becomes difficult to place learners from these schools into legally operating schools as the quality of learning in illegally operating schools is often compromised.
Police spokesperson Captain Johan van Dyk confirmed that a school had been closed and two suspects arrested on charges of fraud.
Van Dyk said the local councillor had raised concerns about a school operating from an RDP house in Nellmapius.
He said the police proceeded to the location and found three people suspected to be the educators; two men and one woman, who all failed to produce their qualifications.
The two men were arrested. The woman however escaped.
“Police also found about 70 children wearing uniforms and two buildings, one being an RDP that was used as a classroom. The classes are from grades 1-8,” said Van Dyk.
Leader of the Nellmapius Ext. 6 community Caroline Mlambo said the community was unhappy about the school. She said the school operated five days a week from 08:00 to 14:00 with afternoon lessons from 15:00 to 17:00.
Mlambo claimed that parents paid R350 a month per child.
She said it was unsettling to see a house locals needed was being used for criminality and not for its true purpose.
“There are a lot of people looking for residential places and still on the waiting list for RDP houses, but this one is turned into a place of business running an illegal school,” said Mlambo.
She questioned how parents would also send their children to a school with over 70 learners to be taught by only two teachers.
Mabona explained the school that is not registered with the Department of Education was being illegally run.
Registration entails making an application a year preceding operation and complying with all registration requirements and documents, such as zoning certificates, health certificates and others.
He said after thorough assessments, the department issues a school with an Education management information systems (EMIS) certificate that contains the name of the school, an address and an EMIS number.
If a school does not have an EMIS certificate which corresponds with the address where a school is situated, then parents must know that it is an illegally operating school.
Mabona said the department was working tirelessly to tighten the administration of the admissions process to accommodate all learners in Gauteng.
“Our advocacy for admissions will always cover information about illegally operating schools.”
Accordingly, the department has come up with a plan to deal with illegally operating schools as a preventative awareness campaign (blitz) in hotspot areas:
– Working with communities to campaign against illegally operating schools.
– Distributing flyers to communities.
– Collaborating with law enforcement agencies.
– Liaising structures to be left on these identified hotspot areas.
– Working with community structures such as SGB associations, parliamentary constituency offices, ward councillors, community policing forums, district offices and head office-based structures.
Parents and community members are advised to demand EMIS letters when they are seeking admission to independent schools to ascertain that these are legitimate schools.
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