Pretoria – New Era College – the independent school in Limpopo at the centre of last year’s matric cheating scandal – is trying to rebuild its reputation.
This after the school’s owner Tinyiko Khosa was arrested last year in connection with the leaking of the maths paper 2 question paper.
Some pupils were allegedly able to access the question paper before the day of the exam.
When the alleged leak of the paper surfaced, investigations revealed that the document was apparently shared on social media by pupils at New Era College.
At the beginning of January, parents at the school located in Malamulele, Limpopo, took the Department of Basic Education to court to demand it release the matric candidates’ results. The Thohoyandou High Court ordered the department to release the interim results.
Now, school registrar Musa Chauke says they are trying to rebuild their school and move away from the cheating scandal.
Chauke said their enrolment numbers this year were reduced drastically.
“We have been struggling with new enrolments for the year. People thought that our school was closed,” Chauke said.
He said part of the problem was that Khosa, who was arrested, was in charge of marketing the school.
“When people called him to enquire about admissions they couldn’t go through because his phone was taken by the police. Even now, the Hawks still have his phone.”
Chauke said the school wasn’t the one that hauled the department to court but the parents instead.
He said the school was willing to co-operate with the department.
Chauke is confident the school was not involved in any wrongdoing.
“There are monitors that were invigilating the exams and their reports show we did very well.”