Too many pupils, but too few schools in Polokwane

POLOKWANE – Polokwane schools were inundated with requests for admission during the recent period set aside for this purpose, with many coming from learners outside the feeder area of the schools.

Some schools, like Pemps received over 860 requests for admission to gr. 1 in 2014, but could only accommodate 80 learners in that grade. “We are chock-a-block full,” said the principal, Desireé Conradie.

Pietersburg Comprehensive School received over 300 applications each for gr. R and gr. 1 and over 800 applications for the rest of the grades. “We are overflowing,” said the principal, Denise Claassen.

Laerskool Pietersburg is filled to capacity, with 1 100 learners. The school could admit 140 children and there are 147 children on a waiting list. Laerskool Pietersburg-Oos is full, with a waiting list in all grades.

Tom Naudé Technical and Noorderland High Schools are full, with hundreds of learners on a waiting list, hoping to be admitted. Hoërskool Pietersburg is one of the very few schools who still had some space for gr. 8 learners next year. Northern Academy, with a second school opening next year, also had space open in all grades.

“More schools should have been built in Polokwane during the course of the last couple of years,” was the opinion of more than one principal Review spoke to last week. “There was a significant growth in the number of residents in the city, but infrastructure like schools did not keep up with this growth.”

According to a press release by the department of education earlier this year, the department wished to have each child enrolled at a school to make sure they got access to education. A period was specifically set aside for enrolling learners going to a new school for the first time, from August 2013 to September 15, 2013 to register their children for the next school year. These registration forms had to be collected from the school nearest to the parents’ home or work address.

In case of secondary admissions, preference would be given to learners from feeder schools and according to curriculum needs. Parents would have been informed by the end of November whether their children had been admitted or not, with many schools already having informed parents.

Parents who had not yet enrolled their children at schools were urged to do so and not wait until January. “Our schools cannot plan ahead properly if they do not know how many children they must accommodate,” education spokesperson, Phuti Seloba said.

Seloba said the department took note of the number of schools around the city that received large volumes of applications and the increase in demand for applications. “Some people started queuing a day before just to be the first and to ensure admission of their children to schools,” he said.

The department was working on addressing the problem.