School admissions still a problem
SCHOOL admissions and finding places for pupils in schools continues to be a challenge for the Department of Basic Education, which cites late admission and registration and migration of families, among reasons.
Almost all provinces face similar challenges, with the Western Cape and Gauteng being the most affected, said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga at a briefing yesterday.
“These challenges led to the sector’s inability to place all pupils who have applied to be placed in schools on time for the start of the school year in January. We are monitoring the situation in provinces and most have managed to significantly reduce the number of unplaced learners, with Gauteng and the Western Cape still having the highest number of unplaced learners,” said Motshekga.
“There are still schools where parents queue to apply for their children in January, which prevent teachers from going to class to attend to them. The security of the school also gets compromised by this practice.”
The department has applied a strategy to address the challenge of pupils who apply for admission to schools at the beginning of an academic year, which includes stopping schools from dealing with admission during school contact time and referring all late admissions to district offices to direct applicants to identified schools that have vacancies by taking consideration of proximity and curriculum offering.
The Western Cape education department said migration of families to metros created a situation where there were more pupils than spaces at schools.
“Our district officials completed their planning in the third term of last year, but the constant stream of pupils from other provinces to the Western Cape complicated things. About 130000 learners from other provinces and 2000 from other countries have relocated to the Western Cape and we’re expecting more by the end of February,” department spokesperson Paddy Attwell said.
Last week on Monday and Tuesday parents protested at Bloekombos Primary in Kraaifontein demanding the enrolment of than 300 pupils who are on the waiting list. Media officer Jessica Shelver said the department was making arrangements for pupils who had not yet been placed in a school.
“We are looking at placing mobile classrooms at nearby schools to accommodate the unexpected growth. We’re installing 230 mobile classrooms in schools,” she said.
Shelver said the number of unplaced pupils had reduced but she was still awaiting a final report.