A converted triple garage, unplastered walls, no ceiling and a wobbly desk with large screws jutting out of the wood.
This is what shocked parents saw during a visit to an accredited venue for the writing of matric exams.
The Teach Them Christian College in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, has now been deregistered after furious parents complained to the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (Sacai), the body responsible for approving the venue.
They also lodged complaints with two distance-education providers, Impaq and Teneo School, that provide tuition and study materials to the home-schooled pupils.
Sacai, the department of basic education and the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) are the only assessment bodies responsible for administering the matric exams, which start on Wednesday with the writing of English paper 1.
Some 4,177 part-time candidates have registered for the exams conducted by Sacai. The organisation was responsible for accrediting 72 exam centres countrywide for matrics who have been predominantly home-schooled.
The department of basic education approves exam centres for pupils attending public schools, while the IEB registers exam venues for pupils attending private schools.
While Sacai has now moved the matric candidates to a centre in Alberton, parents are questioning why it approved the Walkerville venue in the first place.
Parents had to pay a venue fee of R1,700 for exams in non-practical subjects their children registered for and R1,500 for practical exams and language exams.
They were invited to Walkerville for an exam briefing session by the chief invigilator and owner of Teach Them Christian College, Jacqueline Minnie, on October 2 — and were met by the sight of pieces of timber used to make desks still piled up against one of the walls.
The room had no ceiling and, because of load-shedding fears, “see-through” panels had been fitted onto the corrugated iron roof “as it brings in sunlight”.
The certificate for the fire extinguisher on the premises expired in January last year.
The centre was planning to make use of car guards — who are “also facilitators”, according to Minnie — to accompany pupils to the entrance to the toilet “to make sure they don’t smoke, speak on the phone or visibly cheat”.
Berlinda Pitzar, whose son, Matthew, was to have written his exams at the Walkerville venue, informed Sacai that children who had visited the hall did not “feel comfortable” about writing their exams there.
“I asked to see the certificate of compliance for the electrical work done at the premises and was bluntly told I’m not an inspector,” Pitzar said.
She added: “The students’ tables are unstable and have screws [jutting] out of the wood. As parents, we paid between R11,000 and R15,000 in exam fees for a safe and secure facility.”
Another parent, Michelle Coopen, said her visit to the venue was “horrifying”, adding: “We are paying parents and we paid to secure a proper venue for our children.”
Sacai CEO Keith Maseko said “an apology was issued and learners were reallocated to another venue”.
Maseko and public relations consultant Christine Breet, who is employed by Sacai, declined to comment on why Sacai had approved the Walkerville venue as an exam centre.
But Maseko, who apologised to Impaq and Teneo School in an e-mail seen by the Sunday Times, told them Sacai was “deeply upset that a report issued by the [exam venue] monitoring company does not tally with the evidence provided by the parents”.
He told them Sacai would meet the monitoring company — an outsourced company hired to conduct an audit of exam centres — to “seek further explanation”.
“This is certainly unfortunate and brand-damaging and Sacai deeply regrets this major inconvenience,” he said in the e-mail.
A spokesperson for exams quality assurer Umalusi, Lucky Ditaunyane, said the venue was “not acceptable for an examination centre”.
He said exam centres must satisfy criteria such as sufficient space and appropriate furniture for candidates, provision of proper lighting and availability of water and toilet facilities.
Louise Schoonwinkel, MD of Optimi, which owns Impaq, said the Walkerville site “does not adhere to standards needed to qualify as an NSC [National Senior Certificate] exam venue”.
Karen Sickel Wucherpfennig of Teneo School, said: “Hopefully, the venue [Walkerville] will never be used again by Sacai and Umalusi.”
Minnie confirmed that a triple garage was converted into a hall which was “newly renovated” and “very safe”.
She said they now had a valid fire extinguisher certificate and that the roof was “redone to standard”.
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