Pretoria - The online application system for admission of children to primary and secondary schools remains an issue for many parents, as many couldn’t get their children placed at the schools they applied for.
And yesterday they flocked to the Department of Education offices to try to get them placed, with a large crowd gathered at Wonderboom Junction in Tshwane saying they were looking for answers.
They were asked to wait in the basement when the Pretoria News arrived, which angered and frustrated them.
The parents said they had been visiting the department offices since Monday, and had not been attended to. All they got was being treated like children and made to feel like they were not taken seriously by the department, so they have vowed not to leave until they get answers.
Mahlodi Mokwena, a parent, said they had been camping in the basement from Monday at about 8am, and were only told that they should wait for an SMS from the department to inform them of the schools that they would be allocated.
“We don’t even know where our kids are going to enrol this year, I applied for admission early last year in July when the applications opened, but now I find myself in this huge mess … it’s wrong.
“I don’t know what I’ll tell my kids today when I get home because schools are opening tomorrow. I am not happy about the service because when they address us they talk to us like we are kids; they are not giving us the answer we want so we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the day after.
“We are still going to try to engage with them before knock off time and see a way forward but for now I’m angry, we all are,” the parent said.
Another parent, who asked not to be named, expressed her frustration, saying they applied early and the department did not communicate with them. It was only now that it had placed their child at a school which they had not applied to.
She said the school did not have the infrastructure for kids to participate in sport and extracurricular activities.
“It’s more like they go to school and come back, which is wrong. How do they expect our kids to excel in such a school that doesn’t have resources that will enable them to grow outside academic facilities?
“They are now saying that … they will build a new school later on, but they are lying because that school has been there for more than 10 years with those mobile containers with no facilities and no resources.
“The department needs to stop this thing of bringing containers to schools and build proper school for children, because we are paying tax for everything.
“If my child must go to school she must go to school that will benefit (her) so why does my child have to go to school and settle for a school that other children won’t settle for?” the angry mom asked.
Onesimo Phillips added they had been waiting for hours, and said she received an SMS saying tat her child had been accepted at a combined school, but then another was sent saying they should ignore the first one as her child was no longer placed at that school.
She said her kids were frustrated and they were not even proud to be South Africans any more because they would get to sit at home and watch other kids go to school.
“They passed and they did their part, now the people who have authority don’t want to work. They keep on changing and it makes me angry as a parent. Tomorrow other children are going back to school and they will be posting about (what) they are doing but our kids will be home doing nothing; this causes too much stress,” said Phillips.
Maryke Johansen said for three weeks she had been going up and down and the school had been sending her to the department and from the department to the school.
She was worn out and angry about how the department was handling this and said it was better before the online application system was introduced.
She said at the department had told her that her child was registered at the department but not registered at the school. Now they were not getting any feedback from the department because they had been placed in a basement to wait.
“They can’t do the procedures that need to be followed, why they couldn’t keep the system that the parents could go to school and apply for admission? I don’t understand why they had to change the whole system to technology, and they took our freedom of actually going to the schools and applying.”
Department of Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said they would go to all offices to handle the issues.
Pretoria News