6 000 pupils still not placed

Forest Village residents decided to open a School under the tree after Government moved them from different areas in 2019 and never provided School for their kids.The open field school starts from grade 1 to grade 11 Schools around the area are full that left them with no choice but to open Empumelelweni School in the open field. AYANDA NDAMANE African News Agency (ANA)

Forest Village residents decided to open a School under the tree after Government moved them from different areas in 2019 and never provided School for their kids.The open field school starts from grade 1 to grade 11 Schools around the area are full that left them with no choice but to open Empumelelweni School in the open field. AYANDA NDAMANE African News Agency (ANA)

Published Mar 27, 2021

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Cape Town - Three months into the school year and around 6 000 pupils are still not placed in schools.

According to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) those registering for the first time come from other provinces.

WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said: “Approximately 5 900 pupils need to be placed, over 19 000 of new enrolments in the province are from other provinces of which over 15 000 are from the Eastern Cape.”

She said to keep up with this demand they would need to build 19 schools every year, and they would have to employ an additional 525 teachers to accommodate the growth.

Hammond said overall registration in the province preliminary data shows that there are more than 19 000 more learners in the system compared to last year.

“We have been open and honest in the past few years, that we cannot sustain this growth with the budget allocations we’ve been given,” she said.

She said the department has about 1 229 988 places in classes using a ratio of 1.2m per child across the province, and not taking into account areas of demand or migration patterns.

Hammond said while accommodation is a concern in some communities that have grown rapidly, there is still the need for additional teachers.

“Currently, our spend on personnel expenditure to non-personnel expenditure in public schools is 86:14, while national policy targets state it should be of the order of 80:20. Therefore, we are already, in terms of our budget spending, above policy targets on personnel, which affects the procurement of other goods and services and delivery,” she said.

She said the WCED increased its teaching personnel by 429 for the school year to accommodate growth. However, the growth in pupil numbers means the current budget cannot sustain this growth.

Meanwhile, pupils from Forest Village near Eerste River are still being taught under trees after their parents opened a school in Old Faure Road after their children could not be placed.

Parents visited the department’s offices in Kuils River this week to try to speak to the district official about their situation.

The school’s committee member, Luyanda Sonjica, said they have been asking to meet the department to try to find a solution to their problem.

“We made an appointment with the department’s district manager, but when we got to their offices we were told he is not available. This has been going on for some time now,” he said.

Sonjica said they would not stop going to the department and plan to go again on Monday because all they want is for their children to be registered.

A parent, Aliziwe Mgqweto, said what is happening to their children is very painful.

“I wish they would put themselves in our shoes, because our children are suffering as a result of them neglecting us,” she said.

Hammond said the department has tried to place the children and some were placed, but their parents took them out of the school they were registered in and placed them in the illegal school.

“The school has allegedly appointed an SGB (school governing body) and teachers, they have adopted a uniform and a school name, and the school is not a WCED-registered school and thus has no legal standing,” she said.

Hammond added that they would continue to engage with the parents of the community on the placement of their children, but those who refuse to take up their offers are doing so to the detriment of their child’s education.

Weekend Argus

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