Ikage Independent School not registered says Department of Education
Additionally, Matumba now says he is not the principal of the school as he initially claimed both verablly and in writing, but the deputy principal.
In response to the article New school may not be legit published May 30, where The Addie detailed parents’ concerns that the new school on 5th Avenue may not be registered, the Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson, Steve Mabona, has confirmed the Ikage Independent School is not registered.
After the publication of the article, the school’s Rev Vusilizwe Matumba supplied us with a checklist of documents that were allegedly submitted to the department as proof of their registration with the department.
These documents were scanned and sent to the department for verification.
However, the department has not responded to our questions asking them about the legitimacy of the documents submitted by Matumba and if they were submitted to the department.
Matumba could not supply us with the reference number for the school’s application with the department and said the checklist was all staff at the school could give him.
During the Addie’s initial investigation, Matumba claimed to be the principal – both verbally and in writing – of the school.
He has now amended this and states he is, in fact, the deputy principal.
Also see: Parents question legitimacy of new school
“The principal of the school would be the owner of the school,” says Matumba.
Futhermore, two separate officials from Umalusi confirmed the school was not registered with them either.
However, the school has FET00658PA on their brochures as their Umalusi accreditation number, but Meiva Theko, who is an administrative assistant at Umalusi’s accreditation and co-ordination department, says this is not a valid Umalusi accreditation number.
Kgaugelo Sekokotla from Umalusi’s PR and communications unit adds the only record of the school that appears on the EMIS database is an Ikage Independent Primary that is listed as a public school at 163 19th Avenue, Vincent Tshabalala Road in Alexandra, Sandton.
Sekokotla went on to say FET00658PA is an expired provisional accreditation number that was granted to the Ikage SD College to offer the NATED N1-N3 in engineering studies and this provisional accreditation expired in 2016.
Following The Addie’s interview with Matumba after the publication of the original article, concerns regarding the safety of the learners and accessibility of the school have arisen as the school does not have playground facilities on site, nor are there accessible toilets for disabled learners.
Matumba also revealed that learners in Grade One to Three currently share a classroom contrary to conventional school practices.
The future of the school is currently unclear as the Department of Education did not respond in time for publication to our query asking what would happen to the school and learners now that they are aware the school is operating illegally.
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