28 500 Gauteng pupils still looking for places

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has urged departmental officials to assist in the placement of nearly 28 500 pupils who have yet to find desks. But Lesufi, in asking for assistance from officials and offering hope, promised pupils would be placed by the end of next month.

Initially, 31 000 children had not been placed, but this number has been reduced by 2 565.

“We want to affirm now, and also to the parents who have applied late, we will place every single child that has applied,” Lesufi said yesterday.

“But we’re not going to place you in the school of your choice.”

He said 4 500 late applications had poured in this year. This had placed financial strain on the department. About R18 000 is needed for just one pupil to attend school per year, said Lesufi.

“The education system in our province is under siege in terms of Grades 1 and 8.”

The issue, Panyaza said, arose when parents refused to accept placements at certain schools that were given to them, as they were not to their liking. The department acted in its constitutional obligation of placing the pupils, he said.

But parents “were refusing to take their children to alternative schools” and “insisted” on a placement at their preferred schools, which were already full. If parents who applied early enough put their children at the schools originally given to them, this would assist the 4 500 unplaced pupils.

When questioned on the progress of the online application system, Lesufi said: “Those people who say the old system was better, they know absolutely no pain of the old system.”

He said the older system was manual and therefore made tracking information difficult. The online system made processes much easier, the education MEC said. It reduced queues, avoided missing applications, helped with knowing whether schools were really full and provided statistics on the current situation, he added.

– jenniffero@citizen.co.za

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