Cape Town – Up until her lockdown pay cut, Shamila Field, 37, has been forking out R4 000 on petrol every month to get her trio to their schools in the southern suburbs, where they previously stayed.
Her two older children attend a high school in Claremont, while her youngest is at a primary school in Rondebosch.
Shamila says finding new schools for her three children, Uzair, 16, Amaan, 14 and Ya-Eesh, 11, has been impossible.
“It doesn’t make sense for me to leave my Belhar home every morning to drive to Claremont, Rondebosch and then drive back to my own workplace near the Airport Industria - only to drive back and collect my children again,” the mom says.
She says since the lockdown both she and her husband have had to take 50% pay cuts and she can longer afford to pay R4 000 for fuel.
“We approached schools in the area which are the closest to home, but they have also responded saying that they don’t have space for my kids.
“My children have good grades and we live in the radius of the school, but still their applications have been turned down,” says Shamila.
The mom, who also works full-time, is now home schooling her children, but says this is not a long-term solution.
Following a Daily Voice query, WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond says they’ve started engaging schools in the area in order to assist the family “but ultimately, the decision on admission is made by the SGB”.
She advised parents “to do their homework” before moving house: “For example, a family may move into a home right next door to a school, however, if the school has reached its capacity, the distance between them and the school will not be a sure guarantee for acceptance.”
Daily Voice