Cape Town - The failure to place some Grade 1 and 8 learners in schools on the first day of learning has once more put the Department of Basic Education in the spotlight.
Scenes of frustrated parents and pupils camped at various district offices, especially in Gauteng, are a reflection of systemic failures and poor planning by the government.
In Pretoria, parents were again forced to flock to the district offices at Wonderboom Junction to try to get their children placed. Some parents, gathered in the basement, said they had been visiting the offices since Monday, and had not been attended to.
They blamed the online application system for admission of children to primary and secondary schools, saying it was unreliable and often had technical issues.
As a result, they could not get their children placed at the schools they applied for. It’s the same in other areas like Polokwane in Limpopo.
This is a reflection of bad planning on the part of the government.
Furthermore, school governing bodies (SGBs) still wield too much power over the language policy, which some exploit to block others from accessing schools that are in demand.
It is interesting that almost all affected parents and children are black, even though all parents are supposedly using the same online application system.
Is the Gauteng Education Department’s IT system discriminatory, or is it being manipulated, or do some schools admit some learners directly?
That aside, the department in particular, and government in general, must also come to the party. They should build more schools, ensure quality teaching and learning in poor and middle-class areas, allocate more resources to the current schools, and provide other necessary infrastructure like sports facilities.
The South African Schools Act should be amended to strip SGBs of their powers over language and admission policies, among others.
School infrastructure, including sports facilities, should be legislated, and failure to provide them should be made a disciplinary issue.
Single medium language schools should be banned, and popular schools allocated additional resources to accommodate the demand. More importantly, the department must plan better.
Learner placement is a yearly thing, nogal.
Cape Times