Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Western Cape Education Department still has to place more than 1 400 children in schools, three weeks after the start of term.
As of Monday, 6 February, 98.8% of the unique Grade 1 and Grade 8 placement applications for the 2023 school year had been resolved.
However, the department was still in the process of placing 1 476 Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils.
Of the applications received on time last year, 22 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners remain unplaced. Parents of these learners are either uncontactable or have rejected the offer of placement, according to the department.
Of the late applications, which were received before the end of last year, there were 129 pupils who still needed to be placed.
Of the 3 391 applications received since January, 1 325 pupils still had to be placed.
“It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of the cases, where placement is still in progress, are new applicants who arrived this year,” said Education MEC David Maynier.
“These applications pose a great challenge for the department, as they are arriving daily in an unpredictable pattern, so we are constantly chasing a moving target.”
He added that the late applications had made “planning our resource allocation in advance extremely difficult”.
Maynier said:
However, an ANC spokesperson, Muhammad Khalid Sayed, insisted the number of pupils excluded from classrooms was much higher, with pupils in other grades also waiting for placement in schools.
“We believe there are thousands more learners that are yet to be placed in schools in the Western Cape,” he said.
Sayed claimed that, in November, the Standing Committee on Education heard that over 25 000 children had not been placed in schools, across all grades.
In November last year, there were 12 786 applications that were still in process, according to the department.
At the time, the department indicated that it planned to increase places for pupils by 26 000.
Sayed added:
Sayed described the admissions situation as “a self-orchestrated crisis”.
“This crisis, as well as overcrowding, is a result of poor planning, a lack of foresight, and maladministration and mismanagement on the part of Premier Winde’s government. The WCED has turned a blind eye and failed to act against school governing bodies that continue to abuse their powers to discriminate and keep certain learners out of their schools, using admissions and language policies,” he said.
Sayed claimed some schools faced severe overcrowding, with some classrooms catering to as many as 70 pupils.
To meet the demand for schooling, the department has built 662 classrooms and there are another 842 classrooms under construction.
In addition, 70 mobile classrooms will be deployed to areas where the need for placement is greatest, said Maynier.
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