Cape Town – The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) in the province has bemoaned a lack of communication which it says contributed to parents panicking about their unplaced children.
Yesterday, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) said there were 6027 learners unplaced as of January 30 according to its SNAP survey, completed by schools and districts annually on the 10th day of the school year to assist the department with the allocation of further resources for the year.
The department said it had nearly 23 000 more pupils in Western Cape schools than last year, with an enrolment of 1 077 927 for this year.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said the “overwhelming majority of the first-time registrations are from the Eastern Cape (14 904).
Sadly, the budget for these learners does not follow them to our province until much later, if at all, making planning and provisioning very difficult”.
“To accommodate these learners we would have to build 23 new schools just this year, let alone what we need to provide for the accumulated backlog.
"The WCED appreciates that parents, teachers and schools are frustrated - we are also frustrated. It is not that we do not want to allocate extra teachers and build new schools, we are simply unable to without money,” she said.
Sadtu provincial secretary Jonavon Rustin said panicked parents had approached the union for help in placing their children.
He said the department promised Sadtu it would find available spaces at schools, but had not heard back from the department.
“(We) then requested a meeting with the head of department (who) was unable to provide a date to discuss the challenges about unplaced learners.
“On a daily basis we receive queries from parents to assist them with places for their children. It is completely unacceptable that at this exact stage, Grade 1s and Grade 8s starting their new school careers are sitting at home without any school,” said Rustin.
Equal Education Law centre (EELC) attorney Sipho Mzakwe said EELC also sent a letter to the department in August last year to engage with it on its plans for placements, but did not receive a response.
“We can confirm that the issue of unplaced learners started about five years back, and since then no one knows the plans by the provincial government to address this.
"The issue of lack of budget is not an excuse. They have to be proactive and come up with creative solutions to address this. There will never be enough budget,” he said.
Western Cape MPL and secretary-general for Good, Brett Herron, said: “It is the primary duty of Education MECs is to ensure that every child’s constitutional right to education is met.
"Schäfer has failed her most important task. After giving away money that should have been used to employ teachers, she claims she has no money.
"It smacks not of urbanisation, but of rank negligence and incompetence.”
Schäfer said all hands on deck were needed to ensure ongoing quality education for “our future leaders”.