Cape Town - An intensive catch-up plan has been put in place to “support children who have been attending classes in an invaded” mobile school in Dunoon.
The mobile classrooms, which were vacant, were occupied early last month by “a group of parents and other residents” who claimed they couldn’t find placements for the children in other schools in the area because these were full.
Classes, taught by “volunteer teachers”, started soon after.
A registration drive by the Western Cape Education Department found 119 children of compulsory school-going age.
Six have been enrolled at the nearby Sophakama Primary School, while classes for the remaining 113 children are scheduled to start at the temporary mobile school on Monday, after the Western Cape Education Department appointed a number of “contract teachers”.
There has been a growing concern by parents that the children would not be ready to proceed to the next grade.
Most had missed the bulk of the school year.
Many are said to have missed several months of schooling, while the “progress level of others was unknown”, the education department said.
Jessica Shelver, spokeswoman for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said the level of functioning and possible backlogs would have to be determined.
“No decisions on promotion are made at this stage of a year”
However, Shelver said pupils would be given a fair chance to become involved in curriculum work in a “structured environment.”
She said the education district and curriculum specialists had developed catch-up curriculum tasks to support the pupils “intensively”.
“An intensive resource document has also been compiled as a daily guide for teachers to direct and assist them.”
Curriculum advisers would be monitoring progress.
Cape Argus