Outcry as ‘learners left without a high school to attend’
ADVOCACY group Community Advisory Services (CAS) in Kraaifontein has complained about a lack of assistance from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
CAS founder Linda Phitho said hundreds of learners had been left without placements in the local high schools.
Phitho said the department was aware of schooling challenges in Bloekombos and Wallacedene, where there are seven primary schools and four high schools.
He said it posed a problem every year because there have been more former primary achool learners entering high schools than high schools could possibly place.
ANC education spokesperson Khalid Sayed said in Kraaifontein they had been working with parents, school governing bodies and principals to identify a suitable pocket of land where a temporary school could be built to absorb the placement pressures in the area, but their plan had been turned down by the WCED.
Sayed said parents in Mfuleni and Forest Village took the WCED to court to push the WCED to find places for their children in schools.
“My office has received so many complaints from parents who had correctly and timeously applied at schools but had been rejected – and now the children do not have places at schools for next year,” said Sayed.
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said it has communicated widely that parents of learners who have not received a place at schools could contact the district offices for placement.
Hammond said that was done via SMS or email – depending on which option the parent chose.