School on brink of deregistration turns to court
The education ministry is threatening to deregister a private school in Oshikango based on allegations of malpractice during last year's grade 11 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary Level (NSSCO) examinations.
Savo Nuts Private School is meanwhile barred from registering grade 11 and 12 candidates for the NSSCO and Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary (NSSCAS) with the ministry for the coming academic year.
According to information received last week by Savo Nuts' managing director, Shingirai Mbuzi, the ministry's deputy director for the Ohangwena Region, Ngulu Palisha, is reportedly planning to enrol 19 of the school's full-time candidates in other schools because of the ministry's intention to deregister the school.
In response, the school and Mbuzi filed an urgent application at the Windhoek High Court last week and appeared before judge Kobus Miller on Friday.
Legal battle
The school is seeking an interim interdict prohibiting the ministry and the national examination, assessment and certification board from placing any of its grade 11 and 12 learners at other schools pending the settlement of the dispute regarding the school's possible deregistration.
They are also seeking an order compelling the ministry to allow them to register candidates pending the outcome of the matter and for all outstanding results of its candidates who took the October–November 2023 examination to be disclosed.
The school is also asking the court to order the ministry to provide them with all the documents and information they relied on in their investigation into the alleged malpractice.
Results withheld
Savo Nuts Private School registered 46 part-time and full-time pupils who sat for the October–November 2023 NSSCO examinations.
The results were released on 12 January, but some of the school candidates' results for certain subjects (accounting, agriculture, biology, business studies, chemistry, economics, geography, mathematics and physics) were reportedly omitted.
The Ohangwena Regional Council's education directorate informed the school about the investigation into suspected malpractice in the 2023 NSSCO examination.
On 17 January, the school was reportedly notified that they would be informed about the outcome of the investigation before or on 17 January, but according to Mbuzi, they did not receive feedback that day.
She directed her legal representatives to write a letter to the ministry to demand answers.
Irregularities alleged
The ministry informed the school on 25 January of their intention to deregister the school from the provision of education for NSSCO and NSSSCA (grades 11 and 12) pupils, effective 1 March.
"The reason given was that irregularities were detected on the answer sets of some candidates of the school for certain subjects. Based on that, the national examination, assessment and certification board recommended that the school be deregistered," Mbuzi's submission to court on 14 February reads.
Fair hearing requested
In their submission to court, the school argues that the ministry does not refer to any specific cases or issues of malpractice by the school, which makes it impossible for them to raise any reasonable challenge to the decision.
"It is on this basis that the applicant [school] has requested a complete record of the investigation report in order to determine how they will proceed," the court documents state.
Mbuzi claims that her requests, along with those of her legal team, for a complete record have been met with delay tactics. She points out that the school is still entitled to appeal or review the decision; however, they want to thoroughly examine the allegations first.
The school further argues that they were not given an opportunity to make representations before the decision for deregistration was made and were not provided with a fair hearing.
The parties are expected to appear in the High Court today for the hearing of the urgent application before Judge Kobus Miller.
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Savo Nuts Private School is meanwhile barred from registering grade 11 and 12 candidates for the NSSCO and Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Advanced Subsidiary (NSSCAS) with the ministry for the coming academic year.
According to information received last week by Savo Nuts' managing director, Shingirai Mbuzi, the ministry's deputy director for the Ohangwena Region, Ngulu Palisha, is reportedly planning to enrol 19 of the school's full-time candidates in other schools because of the ministry's intention to deregister the school.
In response, the school and Mbuzi filed an urgent application at the Windhoek High Court last week and appeared before judge Kobus Miller on Friday.
Legal battle
The school is seeking an interim interdict prohibiting the ministry and the national examination, assessment and certification board from placing any of its grade 11 and 12 learners at other schools pending the settlement of the dispute regarding the school's possible deregistration.
They are also seeking an order compelling the ministry to allow them to register candidates pending the outcome of the matter and for all outstanding results of its candidates who took the October–November 2023 examination to be disclosed.
The school is also asking the court to order the ministry to provide them with all the documents and information they relied on in their investigation into the alleged malpractice.
Results withheld
Savo Nuts Private School registered 46 part-time and full-time pupils who sat for the October–November 2023 NSSCO examinations.
The results were released on 12 January, but some of the school candidates' results for certain subjects (accounting, agriculture, biology, business studies, chemistry, economics, geography, mathematics and physics) were reportedly omitted.
The Ohangwena Regional Council's education directorate informed the school about the investigation into suspected malpractice in the 2023 NSSCO examination.
On 17 January, the school was reportedly notified that they would be informed about the outcome of the investigation before or on 17 January, but according to Mbuzi, they did not receive feedback that day.
She directed her legal representatives to write a letter to the ministry to demand answers.
Irregularities alleged
The ministry informed the school on 25 January of their intention to deregister the school from the provision of education for NSSCO and NSSSCA (grades 11 and 12) pupils, effective 1 March.
"The reason given was that irregularities were detected on the answer sets of some candidates of the school for certain subjects. Based on that, the national examination, assessment and certification board recommended that the school be deregistered," Mbuzi's submission to court on 14 February reads.
Fair hearing requested
In their submission to court, the school argues that the ministry does not refer to any specific cases or issues of malpractice by the school, which makes it impossible for them to raise any reasonable challenge to the decision.
"It is on this basis that the applicant [school] has requested a complete record of the investigation report in order to determine how they will proceed," the court documents state.
Mbuzi claims that her requests, along with those of her legal team, for a complete record have been met with delay tactics. She points out that the school is still entitled to appeal or review the decision; however, they want to thoroughly examine the allegations first.
The school further argues that they were not given an opportunity to make representations before the decision for deregistration was made and were not provided with a fair hearing.
The parties are expected to appear in the High Court today for the hearing of the urgent application before Judge Kobus Miller.
[email protected]
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