CHILDREN of undocumented foreign nationals will not be required to produce any form of identification before registering for admission at any school in South Africa.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has told its officials that undocumented foreign parents and guardians must be allowed to enrol their children in schools ahead of the start of the 2025 academic year and register for matric examinations even if they do not have the required documents.
Basic Education director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, has indicated that the department has received complaints from civil society organisations that learners have been denied admission to schools or were prevented from registering and writing the 2024 final national senior certificate (NSC) examinations due to their failure to, among others, produce an identity document or a birth certificate or, in the case of foreign learners, an asylum seekers permit.
Mweli unequivocally stated that undocumented learners cannot be prevented from registering and writing the NSC examinations.
In addition, he said Umalusi, the government’s education quality assurance council, has also confirmed that an identity document is not compulsory for the issuing of an NSC certificate.
“The policy position of Umalusi is articulated in this statement: ‘Whether documented or not, all registered candidates will be certified if they fulfil the qualification requirements.
“In short, the Identity document is not a requirement for the issuing a certificate’,” Mweli told heads of provincial education departments, provincial governance sections, district directors, school governing body associations, National Alliance of Independent Schools Association (Naisa) and school principals.
He said in instances where the DBE and provincial education departments submit learner information using their names and date of birth, such learners will not be rejected (or denied access to their NSC) if no identity document is submitted.
“All education officials are hereby directed to refrain from any actions or messaging that could result in undocumented learners not being admitted to schools, and thereby dropping out of school or not writing their NSC examinations due to a notion that they will not be issued with the NSC,” Mweli stated, urging that the contents of the December 5, 2024, circular to be shared with all provincial, district and circuit officials as well as school principals.
He said there were various reasons that learners may not have an identity document and these include that they are not South African learners with birth certificates but have not yet applied for their identity documents for reasons beyond their control.
According to Mweli, these learners could be undocumented South African learners waiting for the Department of Home Affairs to finalise their applications for late registration of birth or that their caregivers have not yet lodged applications for birth registration.
Additionally, they are undocumented foreign/immigrant learners or they are foreign/immigrant learners who have a regular status (for example, learners on asylum seekers’ permits who possess asylum numbers) but do not have an identity number.
The recently promulgated Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, to which President Cyril Ramaphosa assented in September and came into immediate effect in its entirety last month, provides that any learner whose parent or guardian has not provided any required documents, whether of the learner or such adult person acting on behalf of the learner, during the application for admission, shall nonetheless be allowed to attend school.
In terms of the Bela Act, the principal of the school must advise the parent or guardian to secure the required documents.
At the end of last year, thousands of Grades 1 and 8 pupils were still unplaced in Gauteng, with the province’s education MEC Matome Chiloane promising that no learner would be without a classroom this year.
On social media, anti-migrant group Operation Dudula has already indicated that it is ready to start its schools opening programme to ensure that South African children get first preference over those of illegal immigrants as well as oversee the employment of local teachers.
However, Operation Dudula national organiser, Che Serobedi, did not respond to questions at the time of publication.
Naisa secretary-general, Ebrahim Ansur, said the association was aware of the circular even though the DBE is yet to send it to them.