Schools must have captured their compensation for fee exemption claims by 27 May 2016. 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.

Dates for 2015 – school fee exemption claims

All applications must be submitted via CEMIS.

The minimum information to be provided by the school during application will be the school name, EMIS number, street address of the school, name and contact details of the person who completed the form, total number of learners enrolled at the school, 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.
• Select "Public Ordinary".
• Select school.
• Click "proceed" then hover over the "Administration" menu item and click on "School fee exemption" and click "Capture Screen".
• Select the learner and complete the % exemption granted for only learners being claimed. The enrolment period will be automatically populated. Complete and print the claim. Submit to the relevant people for signatures, i.e. finance committee chairperson, principal and governing body chairperson. Submit to the auditor, together with supporting documentation for auditing. Refer to paragraph 6 of this circular.
• After the audit, submit the printout (claim) to the relevant district office for validation. Signed off copies must be kept for record and audit purposes by the school and district office. All supporting documents should be kept at the school. Do not send any documents to Head Office.
• Upon validating the claim, circuit managers must make a print out of the validated claim on Eduinfosearch. These records are to be reserved at the district office in case of enquiries from Head Office.

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

• Final departmental allocation of norms and standards 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 where applicable).
• 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 identified during the audit process must be indicated. All necessary amendments must be done by the circuit manager during the verification process.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will not accept an application which the auditor did not sign or where the auditor has questioned the validity of the application.

The schools’ applications must be audited as part of the annual audit of each school.

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

All information received will be subjected to a validation process by the WCED. 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 24 June 2016), 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 WCED will accept only CEMIS-provided application forms.

Upon the completion of the validation process, the WCED will determine the total value of claims received, whereafter schools will be informed whether they qualify and 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 (R1 116 for 2015).

Examples of calculations:

The WCED 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 be subjected to the total annual budget available for this intervention. Funds will be transferred to qualifying schools by 15 November during the year in which the application is made.