1. The National Minister of Basic Education issued the regulations for the payment of compensation for school fee exemptions to national Quintile 4 and 5 schools in Government Gazette 33971, dated 28 January 2011.

2. Compensations for school fee exemptions will always be for the previous school year, e.g. compensation paid in 2011 is for exemptions granted in the 2010 school year.

3. The following exemptions from the payment of school fees will qualify for legal claims:
3.1 A learner who is automatically exempted as he or she is an orphan or has been abandoned by his or her parents
3.2 A learner for whom a poverty-linked state social grant is paid
3.3 A learner whose parents applied for an exemption from the payment of school fees, which was granted by the school governing body (SGB) (Note that the application and minutes of the relevant SGB meeting must be available for school auditing purposes.)

4. Timeframes

Schools must apply annually by 30 June for compensation for exemptions. However, owing to the delay in finalising this process, the due date for submitting 2010 applications to the district office will be 5 August 2011. No late submissions will be accepted. Each application will be validated by the district office and submitted to Head Office for payment. Payments will then be made to the qualifying schools by 15 November annually.

Annual dates (from 2012 onwards)

Date Action
1 February CEMIS made available for capturing of data
30 June Schools submit audited information to the Head: IMG at the district office
31 July District offices finalise validation process and sign off on CEMIS
30 September Department informs schools of the amounts to be awarded
15 November Department transfer funds to the qualifying schools

5. Process

In order to simplify the application process, applications must be submitted via CEMIS.

The minimum information to be provided by the school on application will be the name of school, the EMIS number, the street address of the school, the name and contact details of the person who completed the form, the total number of learners enrolled at school, the list of learners exempted from payment of school fees in the previous year and the unique CEMIS tracking number of each of these learners.

The process is as follows:

  • Log on to CEMIS.
  • The process description will be displayed on CEMIS.
  • Submit to relevant people for signatures, i.e. finance committee chairperson, principal and SGB chairperson.
  • Submit to auditor, together with supporting documentation for auditing.
  • After the auditing, submit claim (include only audit certificate and claim for exempted learners) to the relevant district office for validation.
6. Auditing

Appendix B of the Government Gazette includes the guidelines for the auditor. The following documents must be submitted to the auditor:

  • Final departmental allocation for the applicable year
  • Audited financial statements for the applicable year
  • Learner attendance registers for the applicable year
  • Snap survey for the applicable year
  • Exemption application forms and documents in support of application for each exempted learner (including proof of foster care and social grant data)
  • Documentation approving the exemption for each exempted learner

The auditor must use the documents to verify the correctness of the information provided.

Where supporting documentation is available only in electronic format, the auditor must request to be given access to the information.

The auditor must complete and sign the applicable section on the application form.

All non-compliance and incorrect information must be corrected before the auditor signs off the application.

The WCED will not accept an application which the auditor did not sign or about which the auditor has questioned the validity.

From 2012, the schools' applications must be audited as part of the annual audit of each school.

7. The audited application form must be submitted to the Head: IMG at the district office.

8. All information received will be subjected to a validation by the department. If any information is found to be fraudulent, the applying school will be subjected to a sanction, which may include disciplinary action against the principal who verified the information and/or recovery of any payment made. Late submission (i.e. after 5 August 2011 for this year), incomplete information, altered information, incorrect information and information submitted in an incorrect format will render the application invalid. The original, completed application form, and not a copy, must be submitted. Please note the department will accept only CEMIS-provided application forms.

9. Calculation

Once the department has validated the claims and determined the total value of the claims, schools will be informed whether they qualify and of the amounts they will receive.

The amount a school receives per learner will be calculated as follows:

Period (number of days enrolled during the year)
Percentage exemption
Per learner N&S allocation
No-fee threshold (R784 for 2010)

Examples of calculations:

Learner ID Days enrolled Percentage exemption N&S allocation Calculation for 2010 Annual school fee per learner 2010
1 200 100% 250 200/200 x 100% x 784 - 250 = 534 350
2 100 50% 250 100/200 x 50% x 784 - 250 = 0 1250
3 150 50% 250 150/200 x 50% x 784 - 250 = 44 500

The department will be able to determine if 100% of a school's claim can be paid only once all claims have been received and the total amount determined. This total amount will then be compared to the total annual budget for this intervention. Funds will be transferred to qualifying schools by 15 November 2011.

10. Any queries with regard to in the completion of the application form can be directed to the IMG manager at your district office.


SIGNED: LJ ELY
CHIEF DIRECTOR: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
DATE: 2011:06:22

Government Gazette 33971  (size: 220 KB)