Cape Town - As the end of the first term approaches, over 2000 children have still not been placed in schools in the Western Cape because there are no available spaces.
Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said they were working to resolve the last remaining unplaced learners. “Our district staff are using all their resources to find extra space for learners wherever they can be found,” Hammond said.
She said the departmental head also made an appeal to all schools to accommodate additional learners, where possible. “Interventions have seen the number of unplaced learners decline. But we had a second wave of late applications at the end of January - following month-end - which contributed to additional learners coming from other provinces,” she said.
Hammond said in December, parents were warned that should they apply late in the province there could be a long waiting list to accommodate their children.
“There have been a variety of expansion programmes at schools that are performing well, so that additional learners can be accommodated.”
ANC deputy chief whip in the legislature and the party's spokesperson on education Khalid Sayed said it was urgent that more space be found for mostly poor learners not yet in schools, and to prevent the annual dropout in the province.
He said former Model C schools have lots of unused space for learners and should take up the overflow.
“It is crunch time, as Premier Alan Winde failed to address real education challenges in his recent State of the Province address (Sopa). Instead of bringing solutions to the big problems facing education and the future of our children, the premier chose to focus on the rosy side of things,” Sayed said.
Winde said: “We are doing everything we can to build new schools, and additional classrooms to accommodate the growing number of learners in the Western Cape because we understand that parents want the best educational opportunities for their children.”
The WCED has also been encouraging parents to enrol their children for the 2021 school year, which opened on Monday, February 17 and closes on March 17.
Parents have been encouraged to apply online using our application website: https://admissions.westerncape.gov.za