Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) may already be feeling the strain of the budget cut made by the National Treasury earlier this year.
The department on Wednesday announced that schools in the province were officially full.
According to the department, it had allocated places for 120 778, or 99.43%, of the learners for whom applications were received for Grade 1 and 8 for the 2024 school year.
Education MEC David Maynier said that placement was currently in progress for 688, or 0.56%, Grade 1 and 8 learners, while late applications continue to arrive, with 176 received in just the past three weeks.
“We understand that this is a stressful and anxious period for these parents. As a department, we are asking parents to work with us as we try to accommodate their children as soon as possible. We are exploring all available options,” he said.
The announcement comes just days after the department laid out its revised plan for 2024 after the massive R716.4 million blow to its budget.
The WCED explained that tightening their financial ropes meant that they needed to cut back on their #BackOnTrack plans, which had aimed to expand resources for learners in Grades 8 and 10, the parent programme, as well as their Rapid School Build plans, and reduce spending on staffing, warning that staff may need to take on extra work.
However, Maynier said they will not stop fighting to expand the number of places available at schools in the Western Cape.
“We will still build nine new schools to accommodate the learners applying for the 2024 school year, as well as 496 classrooms in areas of high demand for placement.
“In total, our revised plan aims to deliver 608 additional classrooms across the province, which is still more than double the average number built annually before 2022/2023, despite the infrastructure budget cut,” he said.
Educators Union of South Africa (EUSA) provincial chairperson André de Bruyn said this was the beginning of the effects of the budget cuts.
“The department is already starting to feel the effect of the budget cut. This is a domino effect, because the department does not have the finances to employ more teachers, meaning classes will now have 60-plus learners, while ex-model C schools are still empty.
“When will the inequalities be addressed head-on and gutter education be eradicated from the lives of the poorest of the poor?” he asked.
Education activist and founder of Parents for Equal Education SA (Peesa), Vanessa le Roux, said the placement crisis was just getting worse.
“At this point, parents must ask what type of education their children receive. The MEC talks about how teachers will have to cope with an added workload because of the budget cuts, while teachers in poor communities and schools have long started experiencing budget cuts.
“They had to deal with overcrowded classes for years.
“At this point, we can’t help but think that the WCED is actively working on a mass drop-out strategy, especially if you place poor children far outside of their communities, with no means to get there, and back,” she says.