Almost three weeks after the start of the school year in the Western Cape, and more than 1 400 learners remained unplaced, education officials said
But Western Cape Education Department (WCED) denied that the province was facing a crisis and vowed to ensure that all learners would be placed at school.
A meeting of the Western Cape Legislature’s standing committee on education was told on Friday that 1 466 learners were still on the waiting list, 1 144 were looking for placement in Grade 8 and the remaining 322 were Grade 1 learners.
Head of Education, Brent Walters, told the committee: "We do not have a crisis. Yes, the system is still under pressure due to unprecedented challenges, largely due to 3 000 extremely late applications received after January 1. But every learner will be offered a place."
According to Walters, a demand for placement at schools had increased by an average of 17 901 per year between 2018 and 2022, and the growth trajectory was expected to persist until 2030.
MEC for Education David Maynier reiterated that there was no crisis of unplaced learners in the province.
"We will endeavour to place every learner. I do understand the frustration of parents. But we are committed to working with them to resolve the challenges."
Walters also said that in addition to the five new schools and 662 classrooms that were built for the current academic year as part of the rapid schools build programme, 70 mobile classrooms and an extra 1143 teachers would also be offered soon.
He added that a total of 180 classrooms were in the process of completion with target dates set for the project.
Walters attributed the backlog in placement to parents not being able to be reached via mobile numbers they submitted, being untraceable or rejection of an available space at particular schools.
MPLs who participated in the meeting expressed concern over school governing bodies (SGBs) being the final decision-makers on admissions policies.
"We need to look into whether SGBs are the right authority to make decisions on admissions policy as this can lead to biases and pupils being excluded,“ said the ACDP’s Ferlon Christians.
ANC MPL Melusi Kama agreed and warned that some schools used the policies to exclude learners who had a right to education.
The ANC’s spokesperson on education, Khalid Sayed also raised concerns over large class sizes, especially at some schools and rejected the department's assertion that most learners applied late for placement.
"Some of the learners who are still unplaced applied on time. In many cases the choice of a school is determined by factors such as availability and cost of transport, as well as language and subjects offered," said Sayed.
Dozens of parents attended yesterday’s (Friday) meeting to seek answers and help to solve the challenge of unplaced learners and other education-related matters.
Vusumzi Solo , a parent to a Grade 8 learner from Khayelitsha, said he applied to at least nine schools last year with all necessary documents.
Solo said he was later told that his son was placed at Sir Lowry's Pass High School.
“It's far from where we stay, which means my son will have to wake up at 4am every day and take three taxis to get to school,” said the frustrated parent.
Solo said after meeting with officials yesterday (Friday) he was told that a place for his son was available at an Eersterivier school on Monday.
Sayed was adamant that the committee meeting conveyed to officials the "seriousness of the crisis, even though they tried to downplay it in the meeting".
“Reality is that we have a serious crisis of unplaced learners. In the main it is caused by race-based admissions and unfair language policies by SGBs as well as the WCED and MEC's poor oversight over schools,” said Sayed.
He demanded that all learners be placed in schools immediately.
Education officials did not commit to time-frames to resolve the placement challenge during yesterday's meeting.
Weekend Argus