With little over a week remaining before the 2023 academic year gets underway, hundreds of learners in the province are yet to be placed at schools, and parents have expressed their outrage over the department’s “haphazard placement strategy”.
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This comes after the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) put the number of unplaced Grade 1 and 8 learners at 680 as of 20 December, warning parents that schools were full.
“The education system is under immense pressure… we are going to struggle to place learners whose parents only apply this month,“ said spokesperson Millicent Merton.
According to IOL, the department has come under fire from parents, the ANC MPL for Education, Khalid Sayed, and an activist group, Parents for Equal Education SA, for the “persistent” unplaced learner challenge.
Speaking to the publication, founder and coordinator of Parents for Equal Education SA, Vanessa le Roux said that it was extremely possible that some of the unplaced learners would still be “sitting at home“ by March, adding that her organisation would put pressure on Education MEC David Maynier to resolve the crisis as a matter of urgency.
“Maynier cannot have an attitude that he did everything he could and now he’s done and the rest of the learners must find their way,” she said. “He is an MEC for all the children that reside in the province, even those that they claim come from other provinces.”
“So, I would suggest he takes this time to go back to the drawing board and come up with real solutions.”
Sayed questioned the number of unplaced learners presented by WCED, referring to them as “misleading”.
“It is entirely untrue that only 680 learners still need placement in schools,” she told IOL. “My email is full with complaints from parents who applied timeously and correctly and yet their children are not placed.”
“We know as at November over 2 5000 learners, including those between grades 2 and 11, who requested transfers to other schools were not yet placed. To claim that only 1% of learners still need placements is entirely untrue.”
Le Roux added that some parents were “desperate” and willing to enrol their children in any school offered by the department, which she accused of offering “gutter education”.
She voiced concerns that at least 20 new schools had to be built each year to deal with the unplaced learner crisis, while Sayed welcomed the progress made by WCED.
“The provincial government has only promised seven schools and these mobile classrooms have been built on the Cape Flats, where gangsterism is rife… those mobile classes have no protection for stray bullets,” Le Roux stated.
Sayed added that the ANC would continue to demand permanent solutions to the learner placement challenge in the province.
“We reiterate our calls that no learner must be left behind in the 2023 academic year.”
WCED vowed to “leave no stone unturned” in its effort to place every learner.
The WCED said it did not apply a policy on feeder zones, even though feeder zones might form part of a school’s criteria for admissions, as determined by a school governing body.
“Some schools factor proximity in their admissions policies, but it is rarely the sole criterion, if it is a criterion at all,” said Merton.
Also read:
WCED announces that all schools are now full for the 2023 school year
Picture: Cape{town}Etc Library