All pupils will be placed at schools

MORE than 30 000 pupils have still not been placed at Gauteng schools but the province’s Education Department is optimistic they will all get a school.

The department says thanks to central application centres in the province, parents can get help in placing their children. There are 62 applications centres in the province.

The pupils will then be accommodated in new schools that are being built across the province.

During the opening of schools last week, Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi and Premier David Makhura opened the Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela Primary School in Braamfischerville, Soweto.

Three more schools that will be opened are Rethabiseng Primary School in Bronkhorstspruit, Olievenhoutbosch Secondary School in Centurion and the Moses Kotane Primary School, also in Braamfischerville.

But according to a parent, Mathabo Molepo, of Dobsonville, Soweto, who has been waiting for her daughter to be placed since last year, the intervention is too late. “My child was supposed to start Grade 1. I have been going to the district office and the officials are not helpful. I now take my daughter to work because I can’t leave her alone at home.”

She has been placed on a waiting list and told she will be placed by the end of next month.

Last week, Lesufi met officials of the Hoërskool Overkruin and Montana in Pretoria after the high court dismissed their case. The schools took the department to court because they did not want to admit any more English-medium pupils.