Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho [MPL] recently conducted oversight visits to two admission centres namely, Gauteng Department of Education Johannesburg South District Office and the Johannesburg Central District Office.
While the Gauteng Provincial Department of Education has assured parents that all those who applied for admission for 2018 academic year will be placed, the DA said that not all learners will be placed before the schools re-open on Wednesday, January 17. A number of learners have not been placed and some of the preferred schools have reached full capacity.
Along with many others across Gauteng, these offices were open on January 13 and 14 to assist thousands of parents who are experiencing problems with getting their children registered for the 2018 academic year. There were many parents queuing at these centres, hoping to find placement for their children before the schools re-open.
This includes first time applications and those who have applied and have not yet received any confirmation about placement, and those who applied in the previous year and were not happy with the schools their children were placed at.
Some schools have no space available, while some schools were declared full from day one of online registration. The biggest challenge seems to be lack of excellent schools hence the demand for enrollment in those few schools that are performing well.
DA calls upon the Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi to create more high performing schools by resourcing underperforming schools with adequate infrastructure such as sporting facilities, equipped libraries and laboratories.
Most parents alleged that they did not get enough and clear information regarding online registration.
“An inadequate campaign drive and poor communication with parents about online registration have resulted in this backlog of many unplaced learners in Gauteng,” Ramulifho.
This includes:
- The DA has proposed to MEC Lesufi to open online registration in March and communicate with parents regarding placements on time.
- And driving awareness in areas where parents have little access to mainstream media.
“We urge parents to accept available schools for the placement of their children as their preferred schools may have reached full capacity to enable their children to start school on time to also decrease the backlog of learners that have not yet been placed. The DA will continue to monitor the process to ensure that every learner has been placed,” he concluded.
