A father who owes a private school R150 000 in fees has brought an urgent application to force the school to release his daughter’s first-term report card, the Sunday Times reports.

The man, whose 13-year-old daughter is in grade eight at Mitchell House in Polokwane, brought the application against the school and its principal, Stephen Lowry, as well as its governing body and the school’s lawyer, Gert Ehlers.

He is seeking an order declaring that their refusal to release the report is ‘unlawful’.

‘The legal basis on which the applicant can rely on free education from a private school is totally unclear,’ the school said in court documents.

The school also asked the court to require that the father provide R400 000 in security to ensure he would be able to pay the legal costs of the application.

The father argues that withholding the report is in breach of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s established 2011 national protocol for assessment.

He is also seeking an order declaring that Ehlers be held personally liable for the costs of the application ‘for ill-advising’ the school, the principal and the governing body ‘to contravene the Minister’s national protocol’.

The matter has been set down for tomorrow in the Limpopo High Court (Polokwane).

Full Sunday Times report