Cape Town - About 10 500 children, mainly Grade R, 1 and 8 pupils, have not yet secured a place in a school for the 2015 academic year.
The second and final round of enrolments closed at the end of September but by August many schools were already full or had long waiting lists.
Vanessa le Roux, co-ordinator of Save our Schools, said the organisation was also receiving requests for assistance from parents who had not yet found a school for their children for next year.
Jessica Shelver, spokeswoman for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said about 99 percent of the pupil population of the province had been accommodated and was assisting those that hadn’t been placed.
“Our challenge in the past was how to obtain accurate statistics on learners looking for places available. Our new School Admission Management Information system (SAMI), introduced this year, is making it much easier to track applications and available spaces.”
She said the metro north education district was facing the most pressure.
“Areas such as Milnerton, Durbanville, Bellville, Parow and Delft have reported huge demand for space.”
Some of the other areas with a demand for places include Paarl, Stellenbosch and Somerset West, Brackenfell, Kuils River and Strand as well as “sought after schools” in Wynberg, Diep River and Mitchells Plain, Claremont, Pinelands and Athlone.
She said that, according to SAMI, the province’s schools have more than enough space for children that had not been placed.
“Our challenge will be to meet other requirements, including language needs and subject choices in the higher grades. Every year a certain number of parents insist on a school of their choice or apply for admission late. We expect similar cases this year.”
Shelver said the department couldn’t guarantee places in schools of choice but “will do our utmost” to place children.
“We expect that learners will continue to migrate to the Western Cape from other provinces and we have planned accordingly. Over 26 000 learners enrolled in the Western Cape for the first time in 2014 from other provinces.”
The allocation of additional mobile classrooms to schools, additional textbooks for late arrivals and additional teaching posts have been included in the planning for next year.
Cape Argus