Cape Town - As the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) announces the last opportunity for parents to confirm spaces for 2023, pupil and parent movements believe that more critical work needs to be done.
This comes after the WCED announced that parents and caregivers have until midnight tonight to confirm and withdraw places with regards to successful applications for the 2023 school year, as the WCED admissions system will be automated to confirm all the applications where parents/guardians have not already confirmed.
In a statement released by the WCED, department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said that this particularly applied to pupils who had been accepted at more than one school, as once a place has been confirmed, all other successful offers will be withdrawn because this will, in turn, free up many available places at schools for learners on waiting lists.
With that being said, founder of Parents for Equal Education SA, Vanessa le Roux, said she believes this a delaying tactic and the only way the WCED can gain the trust of parents is by communicating “where and when did the department build new schools to address challenges of unplaced learners”.
“We spoke to schools, and the one primary school said they have three Grade R classes, so those pupils automatically go to Grade 1. They have received 1 500 applications, but they only have space for 40 more pupils, they don’t even have space to put up mobile classes, so where will those other 1 460 pupils go? And that is the status of all the other schools in the area.
“The same thing with Grade 8, you must remember there is an uneven number of schools in our communities, we will for instance have eight primary schools and only three high schools, of which one of those high schools might be a focus school, so the other two high schools are left to take all those learners, and that is our problem
“I think it is just a way of delaying parents, and this delay is cruel to any parent whose child have to start either Grade 1 or Grade 8. We have seen the number of unplaced learners this year. At the end of March thousands of learners have still not been placed.
“The only way the WCED can gain the trust of parents is by telling us where and when did they build new schools to address these challenges, in the absence of that they are basically playing for time.”
The head of department, Brent Walters, wrote to schools this week appealing for them to ensure that their admissions teams are prepared and ready to review their admission lists this Monday, June 20, and to contact as many parents/guardians as possible before schools close on June 24, according to the new revised lists.
“There are many parents/guardians who are understandably anxious about their child not having a confirmed place at a school yet. The school holidays will further delay the confirmation process as schools will be closed. Please let us all help parents/guardians to overcome this anxiety and stress by confirming as many places as possible before June 25,” said Walters.
Equal Education Law Centre executive director Tshego Phala said that while the online system has its benefits, she believes there should be a more critical approach for pupils who are in the poorest of the poorest communities.
“While the online system has added some benefits, it has also come with a lot of confusion between schools and district offices.I think that there is still a need to think more critically around cohesion between all parties involved and see to it that accessibility is prioritised, because the reality is that there are pupils that come from the poorest of the poorest and the most marginalised communities in the Western Cape, and education is an enabling right for them.
“We’ve come a long way, but there is still a lot that needs to be done in order to make sure that no child is left behind,” said Phala.