By Naadiya Adams

Allegations have been laid against schools that in several provinces are withholding end-of-the-year school reports due to unpaid fees.

The organization, Parents for Equal Education SA has called on the Western Cape Education Department to take action against principles that withhold these report cards while the DA is putting pressure on the Kwa-Zulu-Natal Government.

In an interview with Radio Islam the DA spokesperson for education in Kwa-Zulu-Natal Imran Keeka says he has received multiple complaints from parents.

“I think in Kwa-Zulu-Natal we seeing quite a bit of it, but I have no doubt that it is occurring all over the country, and one of the reasons I think that its occurring is because principle’s know all too well that what they are doing is illegal, that it shouldn’t be done, that there’s a directive from national government which they should all be aware of and they should all be following,” says Keeka

He says school headmasters are reminded on a regular basis of these directives yet they are ignored.

In South Africa we have different kinds of schooling systems, in the public sector there are both fee-paying schools and non-fee-paying schools and in the private sector naturally they are fee-paying schools.

“There has to be a balance between schools collecting fees and parents paying fees. We understand that parents have fallen on hard times especially recently with increased unemployment rates… there’s been Covid there’s been all sorts of things,”

Keeka believes that to achieve this balance, certain mechanisms need to be put in place such as payment arrangements and acknowledgments of debt with parents to pay off outstanding fees without interest.

“Schools also need this money to do things in the school, although government give allocations to schools per learner, in KZN that figure is significantly less than the national norm,” explains Keeka

He explains that while nationally schools receive over R1000 per learner that figure is deficient in KZN by roughly R150.

“When parents don’t pay fees it makes the schooling environment, the management of the school, the things that that money can be used for; such as maintenance of the school, cleaning of the school, replacing of the lost textbooks and many other things that the school needs to run like the utility bill,” says Keeka.

Keeka says the deficit largely affects education in the province.

According to government regulations stated in Section 25(12) and Section 25(13) of the National Protocol on Assessment 2011 apply to both public and independent schools from Grade R to 12. Section 25(12) states that the parents or guardians have the right of access to the report cards of their children. Section 25(13) states that schools may not withhold report cards from learners for any reason whatsoever.

Any parent experiencing similar issues should contact the department immediately.