Former students from the College of Cape Town’s Crawford campus have accused it of holding their future in limbo, as they did not receive their final results or their certificates, following alleged irregularities with one of their exam papers.
According to Chevon Hendricks, their class of 25, who did a Level 4 Finance, Economics and Accounting (FEA) course, stand accused of an “irregularity” for their end-of-year accounting exam.
“In January, we were informed of the alleged irregularity. We were asked to get affidavits, so that they could send it off to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). This was for the accounting paper 1. Later, we were called in again and asked to bring in another affidavit because then they decided the irregularity was with the second paper and not the first. Since then, we have been asking for answers, but none has been forthcoming. It has been three months already,” Ms Hendricks said.
Raiqah Cleophas said not having their qualifications left them in a difficult position
“We have been sitting at home. Some of us are in a depressive state. We can’t get a job because we don’t have a certificate. None of us can also continue our studies because we need our certificates.”
Ms Hendricks said it seemed like the college had decided the whole class was guilty “even though there was no investigation”.
“Every time we enquire, they tell us we must just wait for the outcome of the investigation. When I asked how long we must still wait, I was told we must wait for as long as it takes. These false accusations led to some students not being able to write supplementary examinations. We are not able to write any other subjects,” Ms Hendricks said.
Another former student, Amahle Mteto, accused the college of not following its own policies. She alleged that the college had implicated lecturers as well, but the lecturers were still able to do their jobs.
“They no longer care for us because we are no longer students here. We have to fight this. We studied for three years of our lives – for what?” she asked.
The group also claimed that the college threatened to deregister them if they staged a protest.
The Athlone News phoned and emailed the college with a list of questions, but, by the time of publication, they did not want to comment and referred us to the regional office of the DHET. Calls to the DHET Western Cape regional office went unanswered, and no calls were returned after messages were left.