It was a challenging day as usual for the teachers, who found it difficult to deal with the first-timers.
Ntomifuthi Motswenyane, the Grade R HOD, said the first few days after registration are not easy.
“Children cry because they miss their homes. Others cry immediately after their parents leave them behind. So as professionals who are trained for such cases, we had to deal with them as such,” said Motswenyane.
She said they are eager to start teaching but, unfortunately, parents are still flooding in to register their children at the school.
“We would like to thank parents for supporting us and sending their children to school in full uniform and for entrusting us with their children,” Motswenyane said.
She said having such clean and tidily dressed children makes it easier for the teachers.
According to principal Jabu Hadebe, it would have been easier if the parents had followed the Gauteng online registration process.
“Learners would have been in class learning, but teachers are still busy registering their children. That is because parents do not want to listen. Everything was made easy for parents, especially those who do not have access to the internet. They were offered the chance to come and use the school internet for free, but they did not utilise the opportunity,” said Hadebe.
She said she does not blame the parents, however, as the system was new to them and had just been implemented.
“Every time you implement new things, you encounter some problems at first. But it becomes better as time goes by, and people are getting used to the new system,” said Hadebe.
She explained the importance of online registration.
“The system helps the department to know how many learners there are per school so that they can sort out the stationery issues. The learners who register late have not been included in the stationery distribution list. But perhaps they will be lucky if the department delivered more than the numbers actually submitted,” said a humble Hadebe.
Hadebe said the aim of online registration is to also make sure that nothing disturbs the learning process on the first day of school.
She pleaded with parents who are planning to send their children to the school next year to follow the online registration process.
