Eastern Cape launches audit of independent schools after alleged rape of girl, 7
This after the alleged rape of a seven-year-old girl at an independent school in Matatiele.
The department described the incident as a 'wake-up call' for provincial education authorities.
Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gade says an audit of all independent schools in the province has begun, following the alleged rape of a seven-year-old girl at an independent school in Matatiele.
The incident, believed to have taken place in October, surfaced on social media in late March, prompting Gade to write to Bergview College to revoke the school's registration certificate - an action he quickly rescinded - after the school approached the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda to challenge the decision.
In a media briefing at the department's Mandla Makupula Leadership Institute offices in East London on Thursday, he said the alleged rape was an 'eye-opener' for the provincial government.
'That is why we established an inter-ministerial committee led by Safety MEC (Xolile Nqatha) in the province and (Police) Minister Senzo Mchunu at national level,' Gade added.
The Eastern Cape has 309 independent schools of which the provincial education department subsidises 117.
The department's deputy director general for institutional operations and management, Thembani Mtyida, said the incident in Matatiele was a 'wake-up' call.
'We need to strengthen the monitoring systems of all operations at independent schools. The department has established multidisciplinary teams to visit each independent school for compliance.'
Mtyida added:
Our approach is to target those schools that receive [subsidies] from the department, which are 117 in total. We have completed the process of auditing them. In the next week, we will start with the next phase where the rest of the 192 [independent schools] will also be visited.
He said issues like pupils' safety, infrastructure, police compliance, curriculum implementation and staff vetting form part of the auditing process.
Gade added he still believed the decision to write to Bergview College to revoke its registration was needed at the time.
'We don't have regrets. We are still firm that we were correct. We wanted the school to take actions regarding the incident,' he said.
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