Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Problems plague parents trying to enrol their young children in schools
IF SINGLE mother Nobalela Ndzombane is unable to place three children in school this year, she risks them being put into foster care.
The mother of four was turned away by three schools this week.
By late yesterday 10 000 children still had not been enrolled at schools across the province.
Ndzombane’s children are among scores of late-placement seekers who were turned away at Sivuyile Primary School in Site C, Khayelitsha.
She tried to register Zusiphe, 16, Zingisa, 10, and Sikho, 12, for Grade 3, Grade R and Grade 1, respectively. Her youngest child is an infant.
“I’m struggling to find schools for them because all the schools deem them overage (for their grade),” Ndzombane said.
She wept when she overheard a staff member telling another parent all the classes were overcrowded, and there was nothing the principal could do.
Ndzombane said her illhealth had hampered her children’s progress at school as they often stayed at home by her bedside.
Their long periods of absenteeism from school resulted in a visit from a social worker to their home in Luzuko in November.
“I’m worried that if I don’t find a school for them, the social worker might come to my house again, and I might lose them this time around,” a weeping Ndzombane said.
The family survives on the children’s social grants that amount to R1 500 per month.
“I’m unhappy that they’re not getting an education. I’ve explained to the schools why the children stayed away, but no school seems to listen.”
Single parent Boniswa Siyali tried to apply earlier for her son Aphelele, 7. But her son was not issued a birth certificate, which hampered his chances of being accepted at schools.
She said she visited Home Affairs repeatedly last year, and on Tuesday was told she should await a call for an interview before the department could give her a birth certificate for her son.
She fears the call might be too late as schools will not listen to her case unless she has her child’s birth certificate.
Millicent Merton, Western Cape Education Department spokeswoman, said the department would arrange for an assessment to help determine the most appropriate placement for these children.
Mcebisi Mnconywa, principal at Vuzamanzi Primary School in Khayelitsha, said some of the reasons he had noted for people applying late for places at the school included the death of grandparents who’d been the guardians and children arriving from the Eastern Cape.
Wayne Isaacs, principal at Mandalay Primary School, agreed, saying there had been an 11th-hour influx of Eastern Cape parents looking for placement. On Wednesday morning he had at least 1 000 mothers outside his office hoping to get their children into the school. But the classrooms were filled to capacity.
Each class has 45 pupils. “We have applied to the Department of Education for the extra mobile classes,” he said.
Single mother Olwethu Mzamo was among those in the queue. Her child Lisakhanya had arrived from Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, hoping for a late placement at Nyameko Primary in Mfuleni.
Mxolisi Matrose, principal at Nyameko Primary, had to quell tensions after a mix-up in which Mzamo thought her daughter had been registered. Also seeking placement for her six-year-old son, single mother Zoliswa Mhlantla was turned away at Nyameko Primary.
“When I went to school on Monday they turned us away saying my child was too young for Grade 1 when he turned 6 in December 2016,” she said.
Addressing a group of parents who were inquiring about enrolment, Matrose said the school was already overcrowded, but he requested information about the would-be pupils to relay to the district for placements.
Wynberg Boys Junior School had 20 pupils seeking late placements earlier this week, said headmaster Cedric Poleman.
The Western Cape Education Department expected more than one million pupils at schools on Wednesday Jessica Shelver, spokeswoman for Western Cape Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said.
Every year the department received a number of late placement requests, she said.
“This is either because par- ents have relocated to the province during the festive season, or parents of learners have neglected their responsibility to enrol their children on time,” Schäfer said.
Basil Manuel, National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa executive director, said numbers being bandied about by the department suggested that 16 000 pupils’ futures hang in the balance.
“The numbers are one thing, but the impact that this issue has on children is the major problem.” He said the department didn’t appear to have a strategy to spread the incoming pupils across the province.