About 300 pupils with unverifiable identity documents (IDs) have been found in an Eastern Cape school with an enrolment of 1000.
These could be among 30000 ghost pupils uncovered by the provincial education department during the verification process this year, saving the state R60-million this year.
The province has more than 5000 schools.
A member of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Ntombovuyo Nkopane, said there were 300 pupils, who had unverifiable IDs at Maluti High.
She said there were about 1000 pupils enrolled at the school, which is located close to Lesotho.
“About 300 have no authentic IDs. They are there but are not recognised by the system. There are challenges with the allocation of resources.”
Nkopane said the school was not properly fenced and only had one security guard.
There was also a problem of drug usage because of shebeens that were close to the school.
“There are people surrounding the school selling drugs. Some of the pupils use drugs before coming to school and in school. We agreed, as the NCOP, to adopt that school and monitor it.
“An integrated approach, which will include other departments, will be undertaken,” she said.
Nkopane said matric results had plunged from between 80% and 90% in 2014 to 47% last year.
Maluti High school governing body chairman Daniel Likotsi confirmed that there were challenges with the IDs of the pupils.
“They have ID numbers but these could not be verified with the Department of Home Affairs.”
Likotsi asked the Saturday Dispatch to contact the school principal, who was only be identified as “Siphole”, for a comment.
When contacted Siphole said a verification process was still under way.
“As of now I don’t want to comment about this because we are still verifying and we are re-registering pupils so that we can take these ID numbers to Home Affairs to confirm.”
Siphole confirmed that the pupils were at his school.
Asked how this had affected the allocation of resources to the school, Siphole declined to comment, and hung up the phone without giving her first name.
Earlier this year, the department embarked on a process to get schools to verify IDs, passports and study permit numbers.
Provincial education department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the project to capture IDs had been a huge success.
“At the beginning of this year we had over 400000 learners whose IDs were not captured. That number has come down to less than 75000 and it continues to go down”.
In mid-year, the Dispatch reported that education MEC Mandla Makupula revealed that more than 30000 ghost pupils have been picked up through the verification process.
The MEC said dodgy information surfaced after the department resolved to take a tough stance against schools.
Eastern Cape education portfolio committee chairman Fundile Gade said at the time that the committee was concerned that there were “ghost” pupils in the system though the South African Schools Act required IDs and a parent or guardian to go to the school with their child when registering. —msindisif@dispatch.co.za