The sad truth that South Africa is facing is that there are children who, even though the school year has started, have not been placed in schools.
One mother, Diane Gurney shared her story.
Her daughter Caitlyn was in Grade 1 in 2015 at Deccan Road Primary School in Pietermaritzburg, but because of her father’s work, the family had to relocate during the first term. “We relocated to Johannesburg’s Waterford Estates in 2015 and I contacted all the schools in the area to find her a place and they said they [were] full,” said the frustrated mother.
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“I applied at Bryandale and they said she would be put on the waiting list. They said I must go to the Department of Education in Parktown. I went to the department and gave my name and they said they would call me. No one did.”
This meant Caitlyn had to stay at home for the whole of 2015. Gurney has been in contact with the department since 2015, trying to place her child.
Caitlyn did go to Grade 1 last year, and even though the Gurneys had a difficult time with transport, their daughter still earned a fantastic report card at the end at Rosebank Primary. “The school is too far from home and we had a real battle getting her to and from school, but we were desperate because we didn’t want her to lose another year,” said Diane.
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“While she was at Rosebank Primary I kept phoning the schools in my area to find out if they had space and they all said they are full and I must apply again when admissions open for Grade 2.”
So that is exactly what Diane did. Each time she phoned, they would tell her she had to go to Sandown High School to put pressure on officials to place her child. The school is a hub where parents have access to department officials to manually register their children or to find out whether their registration is making any progress. “They gave us a small piece of paper, which was stamped and said they would get back to us, but never did,” Diane said.
This year, on 11 January, she went back to Sandown High School to find out whether the process of placing her child in a Grade 2 class is making progress. Again, officials said they would contact her but never did. Her husband, Rodney, then went to the school on 18 January, only to find that officials did not know what to do as the directors were not answering their phones or emails.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said, “There are schools that are willing to assist us. We might have to go beyond our public education space to accommodate them, but it is not a concrete method yet.” This is regarding the fact that there is simply no more space in the public school sector, even after alternative arrangements had been made, such as utilising library rooms and containers for extra class space.
Lesufi continued by saying that the Department of Education has made much progress and will continue to strive to get all South African school children placed.
Unfortunately, pupils are still stuck at home, missing out on their learning.
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