SADTU STATEMENT ON THE DEREGISTRATION OF EDUCOR INSTITUTIONS
27 March 2024
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) has noted with concern the closure of Educor institutions which will affect close to 13 000 students and hundreds of lecturers and support personnel.
SADTU welcomes the decision of the Department of Higher Education and the Council For Higher Education to deregister these institutions: Damelin, City Varsity, Lyceum College and Icesa City Campus following complaints and grievances related to, among others, poor quality of teaching and learning, lack of proper administrative support, poorly qualified staff, corruption and bribery, lack of response to requests for refunds, lack of professionalism, exploitation of poor students, non-payment of staff salaries, and underpayment of staff salaries.
However, as we welcome the move by the DHET, we feel the challenges in these institutions could have been dealt with sooner if these colleges were public institutions. Private colleges are getting away with murder due to lack of oversight. Government tends to be lenient on these private institutions and this perpetuates a flawed notion that privatisation leads to better and quality service delivery. It is depressing that thousands of students and parents are frustrated by the situation they are facing considering the amount of money they spent on their children’s fees.
Although our constitution allows for everyone to establish and maintain, at their own expense, independent educational institutions, SADTU believes however, this allows for education, which is a public good, to be commodified and does not guarantee the right to education. In many instances, the rights of educators and support personnel in these privatised institutions are not protected. We are perturbed that at this day and age, some of the staff in these institutions were underpaid while others were not paid at all.
As a union in a public sector, we are against neo-liberal policies and any form of market orientated approach to education which regards it as a commodity. It makes students and parents consumers, lecturers as sellers and those institutions as markets.
We call on Educor to reimburse these students with immediate effect, pay outstanding salaries of lecturers and support personnel. Our government should establish more well-funded public institutions of higher learning.
ISSUED BY: SADTU Secretariat