Survey needed to determine pupil placement

AS OVERCROWDING continues to be an issue for some schools across the province, the provincial Education Department is still tallying the number of pupils who need placement.

Areas including Eerste River, Belhar, Delft, Mfuleni, Strand and Hermanus had experienced extensive growth, said Education Department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond.

An urgent request for extra staff had been made for Bergville Primary School in Bishop Lavis, where 72 pupils were crammed into a class at the start of the academic year last week.

Hammond said the department needed a 10-day snap survey to determine the number of pupils who had been accepted at schools and to make a call on availability.

More than 3 000 pupils were registered as “double parked” at the end of last year Hammond said, and therefore those places would be freed up in some schools to make way for others.

“We ask that parents whose children were accepted at more than one school inform the school that their child has not attended, so that arrangements can be made immediately for a pupil on the waiting list to be contacted,” she said.

“The Western Cape Education Department is not releasing the numbers that require placement at this stage, as the numbers would be incorrect.

“We require a 10-day snap survey to determine who has been accepted.

“We are also seeing placement in schools on a daily basis, as well as new pupils entering the system.

“This all needs to be collated,” Hammond said.

SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Jonavon Rustin said that in Khayelitsha, Enkanini Primary had 1 673 pupils, which would strain any school.

“Different areas are experiencing growth, and it needs to be tracked and properly prepared for. In Mfuleni they are struggling to open a school,” Rustin said.

At Bergville Primary last week parents, teachers and community activists picketed outside the school, highlighting their dissatisfaction with what they said was a disproportionate pupil-toteacher ratio, and overcrowding.

Hammond had said the department’s district office had applied for another teacher post for the school, and they were confident that it would be approved.