Parents urged to exercise vigilance over online schools

Amid a rise in the number of online schools in South Africa, parents have been urged to be vigilant and ensure that the institutions were registered with the relevant regulatory bodies.

This comes amid news of the establishment of the Unisa Open School. It was reported that the distance learning university would establish a school to provide online secondary schooling for Grades 10 and 11.

Umalusi, the quality assurance council for general and further education and training, then issued a statement saying it did not accredit online schools. Its senior manager for public relations and communications, Biki Lepota, said the online school phenomenon was growing and it was important to emphasise that the body did not accredit online schools.

“Umalusi accredits private providers of education and training to offer qualifications on the General and Further Education and Training Qualifications sub-framework of the National Qualifications Framework. These are independent schools, private Further Education and Training colleges and private Adult Education and Training colleges.

“Umalusi is aware of online schools claiming that since they are registered with an accredited assessment body, candidates who write and pass the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination will be issued a National Senior Certificate by Umalusi,” said Lepota.

He said there were two conditions for an independent school to operate in South Africa. First, it must be registered with the provincial education department, then it must request Umalusi to accredit the school.

Lepota said before making their choice of online school, parents should make sure it was accredited, because if not, the learner would not receive the NSC issued by Umalusi. UCT has its own UCT Online High School and it completed its first set of matric exams last year.

In response to Umalusi’s statement, the UCT Online High School said that it was registered with the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (Sacai) Examination Body.

It said Sacai was accredited by Umalusi and it used the South African NSC, the matric qualification recognised by tertiary institutions in South Africa.

Sacai is one of two private assessment bodies accredited by Umalusi, the other being the Independent Examination Board (IEB) which is used by several private high schools.

According to the Sacai website, there are 43 Sacai registered distance education providers (DEPs). Distance education providers are institutions other than schools that register learners for the NSC qualification (Grades 10-12) via distance (home) education.

The DEP provides the learner with curriculum material and takes responsibility for the learner’s assessment throughout the year. Sacai externally moderates these assessments.

Asked about the accreditation for its school, Unisa said: “The proposal for the establishment of the Unisa Open School is still undergoing the necessary internal consideration or approval process. Any communication to stakeholders related to the school will be done once the internal processes have been exhausted.”

Futures Academy independent school said in a statement on its website that Umalusi’s statement had failed to provide context. It said the “current legislative vacuum” was because Umalusi was not “currently mandated to accredit distance education providers” under the General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act.

“We must clarify that the distance education sector is not unregulated but rather under-regulated, particularly with respect to accreditation.

“For over 12 years, Umalusi has allowed private assessment bodies such as the IEB and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute to accommodate distance education providers.

These bodies ensure that the provision of assessments meets a standard that has been acceptable to Umalusi.”

It called for the Basic Education Minister to address the legislative issue.

Education analyst, Professor Labby Ramrathan, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Education, said there was an increase in online schooling and it should be embraced.

However, he noted that there were “substantial challenges of regulatory capacity and capabilities, school licensing and registration with the Department of Basic Education and other regulatory requirements from a governance perspective”.

“From the learner and parent perspective, the challenges would include consistency, monitoring, infrastructure at homes to support online teaching and learning, a place within the home for learning to take place, management of assessments and accreditation for post school activities.

“These challenges are substantial and would take a long time to develop policies and processes to implement on a large scale,” said Ramrathan.

Ramrathan said parents enrolling their child in a school that was not accredited would create a knock-on effect of the learner then being excluded from any post-school studies, as their high school education would not be recognised by tertiary institutions.

Vee Gani from the KZN Parents Association said that online schools have been increasing over the years and the onus was on parents to check whether schools were registered with the relevant bodies.

“There is an increase in the number of online or home schools, we have seen it over the years.

“The reason is that some government schools are under-resourced, have large class sizes, and that has an impact on the quality of education. Also, private schools are expensive so some parents choose home schooling.”

“We often warn the parents: you have to do your due diligence and make sure that the school is registered and has the necessary compliance with regards to the certifications.”

The Mercury