Gauteng steps up inspections of unregistered schools — Daily Maverick
In South Africa’s Gauteng province, the education department has intensified its crackdown on independent schools operating without registration. According to Daily Maverick, the closure of such institutions may leave pupils without schooling, while parents face problems transferring their children to other schools.
Gauteng’s Member of the Executive Council for Education, Lebogang Maile, said that 1,083 registered independent schools operate in the province, enrolling more than 379,000 pupils and employing over 24,000 teachers. According to him, registration with the education department gives a school the legal right to operate and is tied to a specific address and premises. Umalusi accreditation, meanwhile, concerns quality control of qualifications rather than an institution’s right to operate as a school.
School closures and inspections
From 2025 through September 2026, officials visited 118 schools suspected of operating illegally and issued 63 closure letters. Seven institutions permanently ceased operations, four submitted registration applications, and two school principals were arrested.
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Maile urged parents to check which curriculum and examination body a school uses, as well as how a child will be registered for the final examination. He also advised requesting an Emis education information management system certificate and checking whether the indicated number and address correspond to the premises where the child will actually study.
Problems for pupils
One mother told the publication that after moving to the Eastern Cape province, she was unable to quickly transfer her son from Oceans Private School in Midrand. It emerged that the institution was unregistered, under investigation and approaching liquidation. Without a transfer letter and an academic report, her son missed more than five weeks of schooling.
SECTION27 education rights programme lawyer Faatima Lager said that pupils from unregistered schools are often difficult to place in public institutions in the middle of the school year because of the lack of proper report cards and assessments that do not meet state standards. In some cases, officials had to test children individually to determine their academic level.
