Pretoria - The race for places in Pretoria’s top schools heated up on Tuesday as parents took time off from home and work duties to queue to submit forms to register their children.
Reasons given by parents, some of whom had camped outside the sought-after schools since Monday night, included the quality of external exams and the range of extra-curricula activities and facilities.
They said the wait, however long, was worth the possibility of getting their children into top schools which would make noble people of their children.
“Every girl dreams of getting into Pretoria Girls’ High, and although my daughter is on the B list, I do not regret the wait,” Onica Ramapuputla said.
The Lynnwood mother had waited in the queue at the school for close to five hours.
She said although her daughter Tsiriletso had the option of getting into the feeder school from her primary school, Pretoria High School for Girls was the one she wanted.
“Besides it being a girls only school, she wants to be among the calibre of women it turns out. Every girl wants to be at a school to make good progress.”
Friends who had gone through the same process last year had warned her of the queues, so she had been prepared. “At no point did I consider abandoning the quest and going to work.
“When I was done and knew that the chances of her getting in weren’t all that bad, I was still satisfied with my efforts,” the mother said.
Other parents said they had queued since well before dawn, huddling up against the chilly cold of Pretoria’s pre-sunrise mornings, and they were okay with it.
Lindiwe Siwela said when she arrived outside Hamilton Primary School at 5am, all parking spots has been taken. “Submission time was to start at 8am. I panicked a bit when I saw the already long queue, but by midday I was done and leaving,” she said.
The registration process opened on April 7, when parents fetched forms from schools.
They can submit the forms every day until May 27.
Children got on to the A list, a sub A list and then the B list, depending on their reasons for wanting the place at a particular school. Those within a 5km radius got first preference.
Nozizwe Mashiloane said her daughter had been put on the A2 list at Girls’ High, because chief among her reasons was that she worked near the school.
“I arrived at 6am and was number 262 in the line, but I waited right up until 1 o’clock when I was served. We are really hoping to get her in there,” the Equestria mother said.
The major attraction for her family were the marks achieved by the school, and extra-mural activities.
Lara Wakeham who was outside Centurion’s Doringkloof Primary School to register her daughter for Grade 1, said some parents had been queuing since 5.45am on Tuesday.
By the time she left, the Grade 1 Afrikaans class was already full, with no B list for it.
She said: “They said there was no chance of getting into that class, but I got my daughter into the English Grade 1 class.”
Parents will only know by mid-August if their children have got into the schools they hoped for. Some said the wait was too long, but worth it if successful.
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Pretoria News