340 Cape pupils still don’t have place at school, most from Mitchells Plain

A TOTAL of 340 pupils in the province have still not been placed at a school, even though the first academic school term ends at the start of next month.

And for the second year running, most of the pupils are from Mitchells Plain.

The Cape Times has reported on a number of incidents involving pupils who were being taught in informal schools as there were not enough places at formal schools.

The incidents include 82 Lower Crossroads children who were being taught in an informal school last month because they were still waiting for places in formal schools.

Parents had previously gathered at the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) Metro South Education building in Mitchells Plain to demand that their children get placed.

Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokeswoman Jessica Shelver said yesterday that the WCED had ordered four additional mobile classrooms for three Mitchells Plain schools to accommodate late enrolments.

“We expect delivery of these units this month. (We) will continue to accommodate new pupils as they migrate and relocate. A small percentage of the population is always on the move and we plan for this,” Shelver said.

Mitchells Plain Education Forum chairperson Colleen Horswell said pupils not being placed in time for the start of the academic year was not a new phenomenon, and that for several years pupils and parents in the area had experienced the same issue.

At least three more primary schools and one high school needed to be built to accommodate a growing population, she said.

The forum had arranged a meeting with the WCED, which would take place tomorrow, to work on a solution.

“The pressure is experienced especially by Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils. The department needs to rise to the occasion and make provision for the children. Every year we face the same issue of there not being enough classrooms to accommodate pupils,” Horswell said.

In some cases there were up to 60 pupils in a class. “Having so many pupils in one classroom is not healthy and it is not conducive to learning. Principals too have expressed their frustration at having these big classes,” Horswell said.

Provincial Education Department head Bronagh Casey said there were more than 19 000 new pupils from the Eastern Cape who had enrolled in Western Cape schools this year.

“What we see every year is certain areas that have increased demand for a variety of reasons such as inward migration, parents locating suddenly to a certain area because of new housing developments, job opportunities or even migration of pupils from one district to another,” Casey said.

We expect delivery of four mobile classrooms this month