As of 20 December 2022, 99% of Grade 1 and eight learners had been placed at schools for the start of the school year, with 680 learners still requiring placement.
According to Bronagh Hammond, spokesperson for the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), this was a massive achievement for the department considering that in previous years, they had thousands of Grade 1 and 8 learners needing placement at the same time of the year.
He said due to an R830 million increase in the infrastructure budget this financial year, the WCED immediately focused on addressing classroom delivery. The Western Cape undertook to build 842 classrooms to accommodate 26 000 additional learners for the 2023 school year. “This commitment, and dedicated service by our officials and contractors, saw us making gains in placing more than 50 000 more Grade 1 and 8 learners than the same time the previous year. We are also appointing up to 1 143 additional teachers this year.”
Hammond, however, says while these gains are remarkable it certainly does not mean placement is complete. “We know we will receive further late applications, despite ongoing and very public appeals to parents to apply timeously last year. This is the reality we face, one faced by other provinces, as seen this past week, to which we are sympathetic.”
An understanding, however, of the systemic conditions for placing each child is required, which is made tougher and trickier when it comes to late applications.
The challenge with late applications, according to the education department, is that it does not know:
a) how many late applications will be received;
b) where placement will be required;
c) for what grades, language and ages; and
d) for what subjects or specialised needs.
The WCED deliberately opens up its application process as early as March the previous school year to finalise as many applications by June of that year, so appropriate planning can commence. “This data and planning is crucial, and is partly why we were able to reduce the number of learners unplaced for 2023 so significantly,” Hammond said.
Late applications, however, make planning and placement very difficult for a variety of reasons.
The department has also seen parents refuse placement offered to them as it is not their first school of choice. “While we understand that parents have preferences on what school they would like to send their child to,” Hammond pointed out, “the reality is some schools are more popular than others and receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications for just 100 to 200 spaces.
“We understand this is a stressful and anxious period for these parents. As a department we are asking parents to work with us as we try to accommodate their children as soon as possible. We will leave no stone unturned.”
The department thanks all parents who applied timeously, “giving us the time to reflect on reliable data and discuss with role players, so we can plan appropriately to place their child.”
