Parents' dishonesty causes disruption

South Africa's already overburdened public school admissions system is facing a growing threat as widespread address fraud begins to distort placement processes and push legitimate local pupils out of nearby schools.

- By Queenin Masuabi

Fresh data produced by TPN Credit Bureau shows that some schools are grappling with alarming levels of dishonest applications with parents allegedly submitting false residential information to secure places at high-demand institutions.

The findings, detailed in an analysis, highlight the lengths some families are going to manipulate feeder zone rules.

"Address fraud in school admissions is no longer isolated or occasional," the TPN analysis states. "In some schools it has become a systemic issue that undermines feeder zone policies and deprives local learners of their rightful places."

Feeder zones are geographical catchment areas, used by provincial education departments to manage demand and ensure that pupils living closest to a school receive priority during admissions.

According to the TPN data, one school found that 40% of applications contained incorrect or misleading addresses, while another discovered that one in five Grade 1 applications involved fraudulent residential information.

In a striking example, a school that conducted door-to-door verification discovered that more than half of applicants did not live at the addresses they had submitted.

"These figures point to a systemic problem," the TPN data notes. "When false information enters the admissions process, it directly undermines the fairness of feeder zones and displaces learners who genuinely live near the school."