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The Gauteng Department of Education denies it has outsourced the registration of candidates for the Senior Certificate Amended to private colleges.
But Grade 12 pupil Thandeka Mafuya, who said she was struggling to register to write Senior Certificate supplementary exams, told Independent Media the department had informed her it was no longer registering candidates.
She was given a list of colleges where she could go and register. Three of them asked her to pay R1000 registration fee and R500 per subject.
“But when I was in Cape Town I went to the education department and I didn’t pay a cent to register,” said Mafuya.
Spokesperson Steve Mabona said the Gauteng Education Department had never used private colleges to register candidates for any examination and that the department’s examinations were free.
However, when Independent Media contacted some colleges on the list, they admitted to charging candidates to register directly with the department. These included Mbowa College and Greenland College in central Johannesburg.
Greenland College said to register for six subjects cost R2500 plus a registration fee of R1200 and they too said they registered candidates on behalf of the department.
Mabona refuted this, adding that the department supplied registration forms to all schools and centres authorised to offer the NSC.