[Independent media]
26th January 2024 | 09:00 CAT
3 Min read
Parents and their children protested at the Metro East Education District in Kuils River on Wednesday over the pupil placement crisis. The protest was supported by Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC).
Thousands of learners are left unplaced every year by the time the school year begins.
Provincial education departments, especially in the Western Cape and Gauteng, commonly give reasons such as overcrowding or oversubscription due to the lack of funds to build more schools. In addition, they often blame parents for applying late or only applying to schools that are in high demand.
Since the start of the 2024 school year, parent members of EE visited various schools and districts in different provinces to assess the readiness of schools for 2024 and to monitor the progress of learner admissions. During each visit, parents looking for placement for their children have approached EE with complaints about the admissions process, extremely frustrated by the unclear and inefficient application and appeals procedures.
Parents are disappointed with recurring issues such as slow district office assistance, schools withholding report cards due to non-payment, and long travel distances for learners.
“We know that parents have been going to the particular district office we chose and experienced unresponsive and/or slow assistance. Parents are spending a lot of time and money desperately trying to get their children into schools, and learners are losing a lot of time. This is why we saw a need for a protest, which was not done illegally. South Africans have the right to stage protests. Parents were already inside the district office and expressed frustration, and EE protested outside against the ineffective and frustrating school admissions processes keeping thousands of learners out of school,” Khumalo asserted.
According to the EE, the protest yielded results as some parents received letters immediately after.
“In the Western Cape, we managed to secure spaces for parents who were at the district office, but not in Gauteng. It is important that the Department is made aware that parents are very frustrated. That in itself is a victory, and we hope to see more from the Department of Basic Education to tackle this issue from the root and not merely react to it every year,” said Khumalo.
EE has made clear its demands, first and foremost, that all unplaced learners be placed in a school immediately.
EE calls for the Provincial education departments to ensure that all schools have sufficient and appropriate infrastructure as required by the Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure. The departments should also develop long-term infrastructure development plans to address current and future overcrowding in schools.
“The Department isn’t planning for population growth in their areas or any forward-looking infrastructure development plan that looks at when learners migrate to highly populated areas. They seem to be shocked by the number of learners that need to be admitted every year,” said Khumalo.
EE calls for the Department of Basic Education to establish mandatory school capacity norms for a fairer distribution of learners. “There need to be school capacity norms that ensure that the distribution of learners into schools happens more equally, especially for under-resourced schools who don’t have the power to bargain out of having overcrowded classrooms,” said Khumalo.
EE requests the National and provincial treasuries to allocate enough funds to school infrastructure and provide oversight to ensure the funds are appropriately spent. “It is important to look at proper oversight on budget spending; time and time again, we see the Department of Education is accused of wasteful and irregular expenditure, so when they do have funds, it is important that it is prioritised for overcrowded schools and spent correctly,” added Khumalo.
Khumalo emphasised that there are solutions to address the admissions issue, but the provincial education departments and the Department of Basic Education are failing to implement them.
LISTEN to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Equal Education Researcher, Kimberley Khumalo, here.
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