New applications not ideal – MEC

WHILE the Gauteng Education Department is trying to cope with enrolments, the system is still being clogged by late applications.

When schools opened for the new academic year, 58 000 pupils needed to be placed in Grade 1 and Grade 8 classes. The department has since reduced the number to 2 800.

Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said that despite this, the number of late applications had kept rising. “We have drastically reduced the number of unplaced learners to 2 800 from the 2016 online application period,” he said.

“Yet we continue to receive fresh applications, which have grown to 18 000. It is not an ideal situation to be dealing with new applications in January, because learning and teaching is somewhat compromised. However, we are committed to placing all unplaced learners.”

The fact that the first group of 58 000 pupils were unplaced was attributed to glitches with the online application system that the department introduced last year. The system will still be used in schools, but will be confined to Grades 1 and 8 until the department feels it can be smoothly introduced to other grades. The 18 000 unplaced pupils are a result of late applications, mainly from those moving to Gauteng from elsewhere.

Lesufi has said that because of space constraints, schools have been forced to take in extra pupils, and eight new schools would be opened. Other schools have had to establish makeshift classrooms in libraries, and in cases where pupils cannot be accommodated at schools close to their home, transport will be provided for them.