Education authorities and opposition politicians have urged public schools not to withhold report cards over unpaid school fees, after complaints that some pupils ended the 2025 academic year without knowing whether they had progressed to the next grade.

Section 25(12) of the National Protocol on Assessment (NPA) for Grades R–12 states: “A learner’s progress report or school report must not be withheld for any reason, including non-payment of fees.”

The Department of Basic Education says school fees are an agreed amount paid by parents to improve the quality of education, and may not include registration, administration, or additional subject fees.

The department said fee-paying public schools may take legal action against parents who fail to pay, but only after exemption criteria have been applied and parents are found liable.

It said learners must remain in school during the process and cannot be excluded from official school programmes due to non-payment, adding that a school may not retain a learner’s report because the parent cannot afford to pay school fees.

Ashleigh Laurent, legal counsel at Tenant Profile Network (TPN) Credit Bureau, said enforcement steps must follow exemption checks and written notices.

“Government schools can only take action against non-paying parents once they have determined if the parents qualify for a full exemption, partial or conditional exemption from payment and are required to notify parents in writing if they have not applied for an exemption. The government school can send a letter of demand giving the parents three months to pay from date of receipt of the letter.”

According to TPN data released in June 2024, 66% of independent school fee accounts were paid on time and in full, compared to 42% of fee-paying public school accounts.

In the first quarter of 2024, TPN said 30% of parents at fee-paying public schools made no payments, while 22% made partial payments and only 28% of fees were paid on time, compared with 15% of parents making no payments and 32% making partial payments at independent schools.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal called on public schools and School Governing Bodies (SGBs) to comply with the law and release report cards without prejudice.

DA education spokesperson Sakhile Mngadi said report cards are critical for progression, applications and academic continuity, and advised parents not to confront schools but to lodge formal complaints with provincial education departments at circuit or district offices.

Provincial departments have also issued warnings. The North West Department of Education in December condemned the denial of report cards, with MEC Viola Motsumi saying:

“I have received numerous calls from parents and learners across the province who complain about learners being denied their reports cards. This action is highly unacceptable and those school principals should desist from doing so.”

The Mpumalanga Department of Education also urged schools not to withhold learner report cards under any circumstances, urging parents to report any institution that fails to comply, and said report cards are the official tool showing a learner’s progress, strengths and areas for improvement.

In Gauteng, MEC for Education Matome Chiloane encouraged parents to honour school fee commitments and urged families to plan for fees during the festive season, saying: “Together we can ensure that all learners in Gauteng receive the best possible education and that all schools will run smoothly.”

INSIDE POLITICS

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Gbagbo, 76, is running for president in Saturday’s election under the banner of the Movement of Skilled Generations party, competing against four other candidates, including President Alassane Ouattara, who is seeking a fourth term.

In a country where there has never been a female president, Gbagbo tells The Associated Press she could be a first.

“I think this idea (of a female president) is much less shocking than it was 20 years ago,” she said after a presidential campaign outing in Guibéroua in southern Ivory Coast, adding that she believes the country is ready for its first female president.

“It’s good for a woman to run, and not just because it’s me. But if it’s me, then so much the better.”

An Ivorian iron lady

As first lady, Gbagbo was both a powerful and controversial politician, and played an active role in her then-husband’s rule. Nicknamed the “iron lady” due to her influence in power and often tough stance against the opposition and rebels, Gbagbo was Ivory Coast’s first lady during years of conflict under her then-husband Laurent, whose rule witnessed both a civil war and an electoral crisis.

After leading Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2010, including during a civil war between 2002 and 2007, the former president had refused to concede defeat to then-candidate Ouattara in the 2010 election, resulting in a fighting that brought the country to the brink of another civil war with at least 3,000 people dead.

The Gbagbos were eventually arrested in 2011 after French troops and U.N. peacekeepers backed by pro-Ouattara forces stormed a bunker where they had been holed up at the presidential mansion in Abidjan.

Laurent Gbagbo was charged by the International Criminal Court with involvement in the deadly violence of 2010-2011 but was eventually acquitted.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Simone Gbagbo for “crimes against humanity” but lifted it in 2021 following her husband’s acquittal. In 2015, Ivorian authorities prosecuted and sentenced her to 20 years in prison on charges including “undermining state security.” In 2018, she received an amnesty from Ouattara and returned to the political scene shortly after.

The Gbagbos divorced in 2023, ending decades of not just marriage but an unusual political alliance in which both started off as young activists and grew into a powerful pair.

Eyeing the presidency

Unlike her ex-husband, who was not cleared to contest in the presidential election, Simone was among the final list of five presidential candidates in what analysts say features a weak opposition challenge including her party. The electoral authorities earlier disqualified most of Ouattara’s prominent rivals, including the former president and former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam.

Simone Gbagbo is hoping to ride into power relying on her past, having played a key role in Ivorian political history for half a century. As a teacher and trade unionist, she led major revolts for multiparty politics from the 1970s. She was Laurent Gbagbo’s comrade-in-arms before becoming his wife, and, like him, was imprisoned and tortured for her activism campaigns.

As first lady, she embodied the hard line of the presidency and was a staunch opponent of Jacques Chirac’s France, the former colonial power. She has been accused of being involved in the darker aspects of her husband’s rule, particularly the extrajudicial abuses committed by “death squads” during the 2010-2011 political crisis, which she denies.

Ivory Coast is one of the economic powerhouses of West Africa, but suffers from high inequality, with 37.5% of the population living below the poverty line. Simone Gbagbo has promised social welfare programs and also reconciliation, with the wounds from the civil war still fresh.

Simone Gbagbo expressed concerns over tensions amid an alleged clampdown on the opposition.

Ivorians are “angry and frustrated, and rightly so,” she told the AP. “I think the wise thing to do would be to turn out en masse to vote and defeat the candidate they don’t want.”

AP

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