Education “refugees” flock to Gauteng and KZN

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.

Published Apr 16, 2012

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Michelle Jones

Education Writer

FEWER than 17 percent of pupils who leave the Eastern Cape for other provinces choose the Western Cape, it has emerged amid the furore caused by Premier Helen Zille’s “education refugees” tweet.

Zille has come under fire from a number of quarters for her description of children who moved from the Eastern Cape to Western Cape for schooling.

Between 2010 and 2011 thousands of pupils left Eastern Cape schools, with most going to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, according to the Treasury’s 2012 Budget Review document. These figures are used for the Finance Department to calculate education funding for the provinces.

The number of pupils in the Western Cape increased by more than 14 000 while the number of pupils in the Eastern Cape declined by more than 88 000.

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal seem to have absorbed most of those Eastern Cape pupils, each increasing by more than 40 000 pupils.

Zille again raised the issue of the Eastern Cape’s failing education system at a DA congress in that province about two weeks ago.

“While the president may turn a blind eye, the citizens of this province have not. They have long known about the state of emergency in their schools, and like decent parents would do anywhere, they have been voting with their feet.

That is why 44 percent of new registrations tracked in Western Cape schools this year, from Grade 1 to Grade 12, are from the Eastern Cape.

“And make no mistake about it, we have warmly welcomed these pupils who otherwise would have been tossed onto the smouldering ruins of Eastern Cape education.”

Each year, thousands of pupils move between the Western and

Eastern Cape provinces – but the vast majority of them are moving east to west.

l More than 20 000 Eastern Cape pupils, from Grades 1 to 12, enrolled in Western Cape schools for the first time in 2011.

l In that year, more than 6 000 Western Cape pupils enrolled at Eastern Cape schools.

In the Western Cape this year there were 16 779 new pupil enrolments from the Eastern Cape and more than 2 500 from other provinces.

There were no statistics available for the Eastern Cape’s enrolments this year.

Bronagh Casey, spokeswoman for Education MEC Donald Grant, said these pupils placed “a massive strain on our system”, adding that in the last two years the Western Cape Education Department had provided education to more than 37 000 Eastern Cape pupils.

In response, the ANC in the Eastern Cape last week released the numbers of pupils from other provinces enrolled there.

ANC Eastern Cape spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane released the figures to show Zille that pupils from around the country were accepted at schools there, disproving her “education refugee” comments.

“These figures prove that it’s a cultural connection between Eastern Cape and Western Cape, (an) inter-migration phenomenon, as many of the Eastern Cape parents are in the Western Cape for jobs and work opportunities and many are established in that province, hence relatives and children had to follow,” Qoboshiyane told the Cape Times.

He said these pupils should never be labelled refugees.

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