Two pupils in matric at different schools have hit a bumpy road after their parents said they were advised to deregister them from school, in what the parents alleged was an attempt by principals to qualify for incentives for matric pass rates.
Western Cape Eduction Department (WCED) spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said it was “unfortunate that the facts have been misrepresented on social media in both instances”, and added that both children’s parents made the decision to deregister their children.
Probed about incentive programmes the department had for exceptional matric pass rates, Hammond said “principals do not receive personal incentives”.
“Schools do not receive a monetary incentive. Even the top schools announced at our NSC awards ceremony do not receive a monetary prize,” said Hammond.
The pupils were enrolled at Aloe High School in Mitchells Plain and Voorbrug High School in Delft.
The mother of the Aloe High School pupil, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect her daughter’s identity, said she was traumatised by the incident.
“My daughter has been at the school since Grade 8 and never once was I called for any misconduct on my daughter’s part, or academic concerns.
“This year she did struggle as she failed the first two terms, but it’s not as if she wasn’t trying. She attended extra classes to help where she was struggling. My daughter is the first one in our home who made it to here, and she has been crushed.
“When I went to the school, I was told to make a statement to say I am deregistering my child from the school for personal reasons. I was told what to write, and when my daughter came into the principal’s office he told her that I had made the choice to deregister her.
“My child was crying and she begged for another chance … it broke me to see her like that as if begging for her job. He told her she can go to a college where she can study to do hair and nails.
“He said to us that he had to protect the school’s reputation and its pupils. What does that even mean? Since this happened our world’s feel like it has been crushed,” the mother said.
A Grade 12 pupil at Voorbrug High School, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said she had fallen ill during the year and has been placed on medication.
“I am feeling depressed about all of this because it came so suddenly. They called my mother in one day for a meeting two weeks ago. I wasn’t in the meeting, but when she came out I saw the form she had in her hand and I saw it was a deregistration letter which my mommy had already signed.
“I have no idea what to do now. I had hopes for a bright future to go into business, and all the colleges that will accept you without a matric certificate have already closed applications.”
For the Aloe High matter, Hammond said the parents were called in to a meeting to discuss learner behaviour and performance before the National Senior Certificate exam.
“The parent wrote a deregistration letter and gave it to the principal. Evidently, the parent has since changed their mind and the learner has returned to school.
“The school did not prevent this and she is attending classes. The principal is engaging with the family to try to resolve the issue.”
In the case of Voorbrug High, Hammond said the pupil had incomplete school-based assessments (SBA) “due to chronic absenteeism”.
“The school has tried to encourage the learner and has even gone to the lengths of having her language teacher drive her to winter school holiday programmes to ensure that tasks and assessments are completed to get her SBA so that she is not disadvantaged. Despite this, the learner has shown no improvement in school attendance. The parents came to the conclusion that they would deregister their child from the school,” said Hammond.
The founder and co-ordinator of Parents for Equal Education SA, Vanessa le Roux, said: “I am way too realistic to think that anything happens by chance when it comes to government officials, especially when I receive two complaints, of a similar nature, in different communities, both from poor, struggling communities.
“Poor academic performance can never be a reason to deregister a child, a child is there to be taught, they are not suppose to enrol in school with a degree. If you as an educator or principal don't know how, or don't want to teach our children, go home and let someone teach our children who wants to be there for them,” said Le Roux.
Hammond said: “Principals cannot make a decision to remove a learner if they are not performing academically. No learner can be deregistered without their parents having written a reason and signed consent for de-registration. A school can, however, deregister a learner if a learner has been absent for more than 10 days without a valid reason.”
Cape Times