Court breaks bureaucratic deadlock, orders Limpopo department to register rural school as exam centre

• Limpopo Department of Education refused to register BBKS High School as exam centre despite meeting minimum requirements.
• Lack of Umalusi accreditation cited, but no law requires such order of registration.
• Court orders Department to issue NSC exam number and cease withholding services. 

BBKS High School, a registered non-profit institution based in Ga-Phala Village near Burgersfort, has been locked in a prolonged battle with the Limpopo Department of Education.  

Although the school has catered to learners from Grades 8 to 12 since receiving provisional private school registration in 2023, its repeated applications for recognition as a Grade 12 NSC examination centre were rejected. 

The reason? A claim by the department that the school lacked Umalusi accreditation. This reasoning persisted despite the school having submitted its application for accreditation and despite meeting all the physical and operational standards required for exam centres. 

Umalusi and department point fingers as learners are left in limbo 

Correspondence from Umalusi, the official education quality assurance body, added a layer of irony to the dispute. In a letter dated January 2025, Umalusi informed the school that it could not finalise accreditation unless the department first issued the NSC examination centre number. 

Then in May 2025, Umalusi again reiterated the need for the exam centre number to complete the school’s accreditation process. The Department, however, remained unmoved, instead instructing the school to send its learners elsewhere. Learners were thus trapped between two government entities, each claiming the other must act first. 

Court finds department’s position unsupported by law or logic 

In reviewing the case, Judge A Makoti considered the applicable legislation, including Regulation 27 of the National Senior Certificate Regulations, which outlines the logistical requirements for exam centre registration. Nowhere in the regulation is Umalusi accreditation listed as a prerequisite for registration. 

Further, Judge Makoti noted that Departmental Circular 110 of 2019 and the National Policy on the Conduct, Administration and Management of Assessment of the Senior Certificate also failed to justify the Department’s rigid position. In fact, the policy contemplates that independent schools should register for exam centre status through the department as part of their accreditation process, not after it. 

Final order clarifies registration sequence and restores access to education 

Considering these findings, the court issued a strong and remedial order in favour of BBKS High School. It declared that the school had met the required standards to serve as an examination centre and directed the Department of Education and the MEC for Education in Limpopo to issue an NSC examination number within 10 days of the order being served. 

The court interdicted the Department and MEC from withholding services from the school based on its pending accreditation, acknowledging that doing so unfairly prejudiced the learners’ right to basic education. It further ordered the respondents to pay the school’s legal costs on a punitive scale. 

Victory for learners and constitutional rights 

BBKS High School may now proceed with preparations for its Grade 12 examinations, and its learners can do so with dignity, continuity and the certainty that their education is protected under the law. 

Conviction.co.za