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Despite the Gauteng Department of Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s commitment to place all grade 1 and 8 learners in schools before end of last year, many learners are still unsure about their schooling for 2018.

The DA is concerned about the number of Gauteng learners who have not yet secured school placement, including those who had applied online.

Parents are frustrated and uncertain as to whether their children are going to be placed in schools for this academic year; they aren’t sure if they must buy school uniforms as they have received no confirmation from the department.

The department’s online application process which opened on May 2017 and closed in November 2017, should have given the department ample opportunity to plan and allocate the required resources.

We supported the online registration process in the hope that it would create certainty before school holidays, and alleviate the pressure placed on both schools and parents.

Failure to ensure the timeous placing of any grade 1 and 8 learners will have a traumatic effect on such learners, which could negatively impact on their educational outcomes.

The DA will write to MEC Lesufi to get confirmation on whether all learners will be placed before start of the 2018 academic year.

Learning and teaching must start on day one of schooling next week.

The trend of the past few years of placing learners in schools at the end of February must come to an end.

The department must strike a balance between schools facing high enrolment demand and those schools which are standing empty.

The DA will request the Gauteng Provincial Legislature Education Portfolio Committee to interrogate the online registration process to determine the reason for delays, identify schools with high demand and how to improve the system going forward.

Issued by DA