The Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) yesterday effectively shut down Port Elizabeth independent school EduPlanet because it remains unregistered. A Daily Dispatch report says the provincial education department brought the urgent High Court interdict to stop EduPlanet from operating the unregistered independent school as a vital first step in its battle against unregistered schools.

However, in the interest of what it described as the children’s constitutional right to an education, the school asked the High Court to suspend the operation of any interdict against it for 12 months to give it an opportunity to complete the registration process. But Judge Clive Plasket refused to do so, questioning whether he could suspend an interdict in circumstances in which the conduct complained of amounted to an ongoing criminal offence. He said the SA Schools Act was clear that an independent school must be registered with the provincial education department. Plasket said the school believed it could operate with impunity despite not having filed an application for registration and despite the property it operated from not being zoned for education purposes. He said the pupils had, in effect, been enticed to register and their parents had been required to pay substantial amounts of money under false pretences. Plasket ordered EduPlanet to pay the costs of the department’s application on a punitive scale to show the court’s displeasure with its conduct.

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