The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is committed to ensure that all learners are offered a place in a school.
As of December 20, we had placed 111 616, or 99%, of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for the (new) school year, and are in the process of placing the remaining 680 learners. This is a massive improvement from previous years, as we have placed 50 160 more Grade 1 and 8 learners than this time last year.
The reality is that there will be learners that will require placement in the coming weeks and who cannot be placed immediately. There is nothing unusual about this and is, in fact, to be expected.
It is also not unique to the Western Cape. This week we have seen similar challenges being raised in other inland provinces.
We have tried to mitigate this as far as possible by building 842 additional classrooms for the 2023 school year, with at least 26 000 places for learners in the province. This kind of build is unprecedented.
We are building the equivalent of one school every four days, or eight classes per day, on average, with officials working around the clock to achieve this. We are also appointing up to 1 143 additional teachers in the system this year.
Each child is unique and consideration for placement does not rely on buildings and teachers alone. We also need to take into account the areas in which the learners reside, availability in their specific grade, their language preference and subject choices.
Some schools receive hundreds, if not thousands of applications, for just 100 to 200 spaces.
Therefore, parents may not necessarily get into their first school of choice.
Another major factor is late applications. Despite ongoing and very public appeals to parents to apply timeously last year, we are still receiving late applications. This makes planning extremely difficult.
There is also unexpected growth. We cannot always predict the sudden growth of a certain community that develops illegally over the holiday period, for example, and now requires additional spaces.
We also need the system to settle. It is only after the 10th school day that we can accurately assess learner numbers in schools and determine how many spaces are still available.
Some learners who have confirmed placement at schools do not arrive and can be deregistered after 10 school days. This allows for the further placement of learners.
The start of any school year is always a challenge, particularly with placement. However, we will continue to do everything we can to assist every parent.
Western Cape Education Department