Outrage over school placement
Gauteng parents flock to district offices in bid to find space for their children
DESPERATE Gauteng parents struggling to find placements for their children at schools, yesterday flocked to education district offices in a last bid to get help.
Long queues stretched outside the department’s district offices in Braamfontein in centtral Joburg, including other offices in Benoni, Ekurhuleni, where parents of Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners tried to find placements for their children at schools.
One parent, Mpho Kekana, told The Star that she was trying to find a space for her daughter who is going to Grade 1, near the Witkoppen area.
“My child used to live at home with my family in another province and I thought she would attend school there, but there were problems so I had to take her to a school here in Gauteng,” she said.
Kekana said she was told to register for a placement tomorrow when the late registration processes start.
She said there was nothing she could do except wait for tomorrow.
Tshepo Mondlana said there were domestic issues regarding his daughter, who is going to Grade 8.
He said this had prevented the family from registering the child for a placement last year.
He said he went to the school he was hoping to send his daughter to but was referred to the district office.
Mondlana said he would apply for late registration for his child, but was apprehensive about the process.
“I fear that there might be issues with the system maybe being offline or the system not being available at the time or the system having an overload come Wednesday,” he said.
One parent, Nokwanda Mayise, got a placement for her daughter at Athlone Girls High School in Observatory. But she lost her job at the end of last year.
“I registered her online and they approved it and I sent in the forms, but now they are saying they cannot accept her because I don’t have money for the registration fees.
“I don’t work but my child receives a social grant,” she said.
Mayise said she also has another daughter who attends the school, who is going to Grade 11 this year.
“I had been paying for my older daughter the whole time, but this time around I cannot pay because I no longer have a job and I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.
During the online admissions application period which started on May 20 to July 22, the department received a total of 310 350 applications.
As of November 19, 27 563 of the total applications had not submitted the required documents, while 282 787 applicants had submitted their documents.
By then, 267 611 applicants had been placed while 14 617 applicants were still to receive placement offers and which were supposed to be placed by the November 30 deadline.
Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi is expected to give an update on the appeals and late registration for Grades 1 and 8 admissions today.
Departmental spokesperson Steve Mabona yesterday said he could only answer placement and admissions questions after Lesufi’s announcement.
MILLIONS of rand thrown at the historic alma mater of Pan Africanist Congress founder Robert Sobukwe and former president Nelson Mandela have done little to help the school attain an impressive matric pass rate.
The Healdtown Comprehensive School in the Eastern Cape town of Fort Beaufort obtained a 25% pass rate in the 2019 matric results.
Twenty learners sat the matric exams at the school, and only five passed.
Healdtown’s poor performance mirrored scores of schools across the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo with fewer learners sitting the exam.
The Star reported last week that the cohort of schools with low learner numbers performed badly each year largely because they had inadequate teachers.
These schools were supplied fewer teachers because of their low learner numbers.
Unions have for years been critical of the model the government used to supply teachers to schools.
Healdtown has battled to attain a pass rate above 30% over the last three years.
It attained 23.3% in 2018 out of 30 matrics that wrote, and 24.1% in 2017 from 29 learners.
As one of the institutions that benefited from the Historic Schools Restoration Project, Healdtown’s infrastructure was renovated at a cost of R46 million in 2018.
The SA Council of Churches (SACC) and Eastern Cape Education Department contributed the funds that returned the school’s facilities to their former glory.
The Reverend Lulama Ntshingwa, the SACC’s Eastern Cape chairperson, expressed disappointment at the school’s results.
“As the Council of Churches we’ve been supporting the government to ensure that all the historical schools in the Eastern Cape reach a point where we are able to say they are centres of excellence.
“If you talk of 25%, that’s not a centre of excellence,” Ntshingwa said.
He challenged district officials to attend to problems at the school. The district should ensure Healdtown had enough teachers, Ntshingwa said.
Learners from the school protested in 2017 over the shortage of teachers.
Ntshingwa said: “My view is that the (provincial) government and the Methodist Church have done their bit in terms of infrastructure. The ball now is in the court of the officials of Amathole West district.
“The district needs to work with the school and make sure that they provide teachers that are needed there.”
Ntshingwa said he was aware that surviving alumni of the school were planning to intervene. “They’re trying to get some funds for additional teachers. The alumni of Healdtown have a strong view (about the school).
“I think they can contribute in terms of making sure that the pass rate of that school changes dramatically.”
In addition to Sobukwe and Mandela, the school’s illustrious alumni included ANC leader Govan Mbeki, journalist John Tengo Jabavu former vice-president of Zimbabwe Joshua Nkomo and former Botswana president Seretse Khama.
Healdtown’s surviving alumni included businesswoman Wendy Luhabe, former Wits University vice-chancellor, Professor Loyiso Nongxa, and former University of Fort Hare vice-chancellor professor Mvuyo Tom.
Loyiso Pulumani, Eastern Cape Education Department spokesperson, had not responded to a comment request by late yesterday. He confirmed receiving the questions yesterday morning. | @BonganiNkosi87