The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Section 29 (3)(b), and the South African Schools Act (Section 46(a)) stipulate that all schools must register with the Department of Education before they start operating.

However, the registration process and protocol requires independent schools to submit certain information together with their registration application.

Some of this information can only be made available once the school is operational, e.g. number of teachers and their SACE registration numbers and number of learners, etc.

This has compelled independent schools to submit their registration application at the same time as they begin to enrol learners.

Currently, ISASA is lobbying government to consider provisional registration while full registration application is pending.