Gauteng Department of Education is adamant that all children who have not been admitted to Grade 1 and 8 in the province, will be placed in schools.
Education MEC Phanyaza Lesufi addressed principals, teachers, parents and members of the School Governing Bodies (SGB) from all districts in the province on 24 October at Ticket-Pro Dome about the status of school readiness and pupil admissions in the province.
Lesufi encouraged all stakeholders to be proactive and share strategies that will ensure the admission crisis was resolved.
The MEC also revealed that the department will unveil 18 new schools that will accommodate pupils with disability from next year.
“The waiting list for disable pupils is always five years. Now with the new schools, the waiting list will be reduced from five years to 18 months and by 2017, we will have eradicated this problem,” Lesufi said.
Chief director of the school management department Elize Froneman indicated that GDE has higher level oversight visits from the executive management team of the department.
“These visits are scheduled to start this coming week,” Froneman said.
She further added, “We plan meticulously every single year and the growth just keeps increasing because we are doing very well as a province. Everyone is migrating to the province.”
According to Froneman, even residents as far as Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal were enquiring about admissions when they heard that the department was hosting admission open day.
“So let us open the doors for our Gauteng education and continue to excel. We all need to stand together and ensure that we assist these children. Currently we still have late applications and we are sitting at 26 272 pupils that we need to place,” said Froneman.
She concluded that there was a pressure – particularly with children that had to be admitted to Grade 1 throughout the province.
Lesufi also indicated that he will not abuse the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision that the authority to admit pupils at schools lies with the Department of Education.
“Only when the schools are contravening the law – then I will intervene,” concluded the MEC for Education.
Details: Gauteng Department of Education 011 355 0909.
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