Schools in the coastal provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape reopen today.
The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) in the Western has called on unplaced learners to walk in to any private school near their homes, following the problem of placements in the province.
“We are calling for all unplaced learners to wake up on January 19, wear a grey pants/skirt, white shirt and walk in any private school near their home and send the school fees bill to the Western Cape Education Department as we are sick and tired of searching for schools for unplaced learners,whereas there are schools whom are not even close to the teacher-to-learner ratio per class, we are saying that education shall be equal and not be sold to anyone” (sic).
According to the WCED, over 1.1 million learners will be attending school for the first time this week, a total of 105 000 are Grade 1s and 97 000 are Grade 8s. There are 442 Grade 1 and 2 419 Grade 8 learners that still need to be placed.
The WCED said it had made great progress in placing learners who applied for the 2022 school year in 2021, despite over 32 000 late applications.
The MEC of education in the province, Debbie Schäfer, is urging for all parents of unplaced learners to work with the department in resolving this issue.
“I appeal to parents to keep their phones handy so as not to miss a call from our officials. Parents who have not yet applied are doing so very late. They must please contact or visit the WCED district offices in the area in which they reside, so that they can be added to the placement list.
“The department is in a much better position than last year, and will continue to work hard to place all learners as soon as possible, despite new applications coming in daily,” said Schäfer.