Dept ‘working around the clock’
THE NORTHERN Cape Department of Education is “working around the clock” to ensure that all pupils are placed at schools across the Province by the end of the month, after receiving a total of 20 755 pupil admission applications for the 2019 academic year.
“A total of 12 012 applications were for Grade R to 12 in English and 8 743 applications for Grade R to 12 in Afrikaans,” department spokesperson, Geoffrey van der Merwe, said yesterday. “Sufficient school places do exist to accommodate all the pupils for the 2019 school academic year. All pupils in the Namaqua and Pixley Ka Seme districts have been placed.”
Van der Merwe added that, to date, the department had managed to place a total of 18 904 pupils, with an outstanding number of 1 851 pupils still needing to be placed.
“Pupils still needing placement include 301 English Grade 1 pupils in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District, who will be placed at the new Wrenchville Primary School that will open in January 2019; 247 Grade 1 English pupils in the Frances Baard District; 33 Grade 1 Afrikaans pupils in the Frances Baard District; 442 Grade 8 English pupils in the Frances Baard District; 123 Grade 1 and 261 Grade 8 pupils, plus an additional 362 pupils from other grades in the ZF Mgcawu District; and 82 English and 67 Afrikaans Grade 8 pupils in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District.
“It should be noted that 314 (Frances Baard), 130 (John Taolo Gaetsewe) and 169 (ZF Mgcawu) Grade R pupils have not been placed since there is no Grade R spaces at public ordinary schools and these parents will have to apply to community sites and independent schools,” Van der Merwe said.
He added that the Office of the MEC received a total of 392 appeals, which ranged from Grades R to 12.
“The majority of these appeals do not qualify in terms of the criteria. In some cases we received appeals from parents who did not even apply to any school in the Province. We also received a number of appeals from parents whose pupils are hopping between schools. These parents will receive responses by November 30 2018,” Van der Merwe stated.
He further said that the relocation of parents seeking employment, school hoppers and the limited number of English classes were the major challenges in the John Taolo Gaetsewe, Frances Baard and ZF Mgcawu districts.
“The placement of pupils is also hampered by parental choice since most of the above-mentioned parents demand spaces at a certain school. As a department we cannot guarantee a school of choice, but every pupil will be placed in a school where school spaces do exist,” Van der Merwe said.
He concluded by saying that all the Districts Admission Teams and the Appeals Team were “working around the clock” to ensure that all pupils were placed by November 30 2018.