Pretoria - Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said his department was doing its best to clear more than 4 700 appeals received for grades 1 and 8 before the commencement of the 2023 academic year.
During a recent interview, Chiloane said the department had received 289 297 applications, which accounted for 99.3% of the total number of applications received by the department for the academic year ahead.
He said of that number, 2 848 pupils were still to be placed in Grade 8, while there were 350 Grade 1 pupils still to be placed.
Despite it being less than a week before schools are due to reopen on January 11, the MEC said he was confident that his department would be able to place all pupils, including those they had placed on the transfer management table.
For late applications, Chiloane said that the only schools parents would be able to see and pick from were those that still had space available, unlike parents who applied during the initial application phase.
During the initial phase of applications for grades 1 and 8, which opened on July 22 and closed at midnight on August 19, parents were allowed to choose five different preferred schools.
“Dealing with late applications is not a new situation or challenge for the department, as we have seen from last year and the year before that one. The only thing that would be of concern would be parents who may apply after the schools reopen, as that would result in a delay in terms of acquiring the materials required for every learner.”
Even with this concern, Chiloane said the last-minute applications would not cause a fundamental delay that would affect the overall outcome of teaching and learning in the province.
About 4 773 parents who were not happy with the placements they received for their children had also appealed to the department. Chiloane said they had responded to most of these based on merit.
Some of the issues raised by parents regarding placement were said to include preferences or issues of siblings.
“The issues vary and we are looking into them, and if we are able to agree or support those appeals, we are able to do that. We’re responding to them properly. Each appeal is receiving its own attention.”
To combat capacity issues for high-pressure areas, Chiloane said the department had a strong planning team that had done its best to anticipate the pattern and needs of the province.
Although the biggest challenge remained infrastructure, he said the department was forging ahead with its self-build programme, which gave schools the financial capacity to build extra classrooms.
He said they were also taking 4 000 mobile classroom units to different areas, which should be ready when schools reopen and provide additional space for 5 000 pupils.
Pretoria News