WESTERN CAPE NEWS - Parents of learners not yet placed in a school, must accept that their children may not be guaranteed a place at their first school of choice.
Debbie Schäfer, minister of Education in the Western Cape, said, "Parents should accept places they have been offered, or apply at schools that the district advises them to apply at.
"The majority of our schools have indicated that they are full. We can therefore only refer parents to schools where there is availability."
Officials from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) have been working tirelessly with schools during the third and fourth terms last year to place as many learners as possible for 2018 and have reduced the number of learners looking for places from 19 910 in December to 11 249 by Monday 8 January.
"We are especially struggling to accommodate learners in Grades 1 and 8.
"While we have placed 99% of the learners needing place in our schools in this past year (about 1,1-million), 11 249 still need placement - 68% of these learners (7 668) need places in Grades 1 and 8," said Schäfer.
More than 130 000 learners have moved to the Western Cape from other provinces over the past five years, mainly from the Eastern Cape, placing the education system in the Western Cape under considerable pressure.
The challenge arises when people move to the province without planning in advance or without enrolling their children at a school.
It therefore makes it impossible for the WCED to foresee and plan accordingly.
Parents had to apply for places in 2018 by 24 March 2017.
Schools had to inform parents of the outcome in writing of their applications by 3 June last year and parents had to confirm acceptance by the end of the second term, 30 June.
Each district has officials working full time to help parents to place their children, as the WCED expects further late arrivals in January and February.
The WCED will redeploy teachers in excess of requirements at certain schools to schools seeing rapid growth, where possible, depending on the teachers' qualifications.
The department urges parents who have arrived in the Eden and Karoo district to contact Albie Ellmann on 044 803 8300/09 or Albie.Ellman@westerncape.gov.za or fax on 044 873 2253 as soon as possible.
'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news'
