Staff Reporter
Late applications by some parents with children entering the foundation phase or starting high school has seen over a thousand learners failing to start school on time this week as they are yet to be placed at different schools across the Free State.
Provincial education department spokesperson Howard Ndaba told The Free Stater that at least 121 Grade R learners, 374 Grade 1 learners and 1 144 learners starting Grade 8 at public schools had not been placed when the academic year resumed this week.
He said following an oversight and monitoring visit conducted by the provincial government, it was found that some parents registered their children late despite the massive advocacy on application cut-off dates.
“Parents, mainly from township schools, ignore the published closing dates for learner admission,” said Ndaba, referring to a report released by the department.
He said parents from rural communities who move to big cities at the beginning of the year also took long to lodge applications for their children.
“Informal settlements that spring up around established communities due to the influx from rural to urban areas also present a challenge as it is difficult to predict the expected numbers ahead of the new year,” he added.
Some of the areas where learner placements have proved a challenge include Welkom, Bloemfontein, Bultfontein, Bethlehem, Sasolburg, Parys and Kroonstad.
By Friday, at least 13 132 learners had been admitted for Grade R while 22 967 had started Grade 1.
There were 44 957 registered for Grade 8.
Ndaba said the high demand for admission in English medium schools, perceived to provide better quality education, made the situation more difficult for education authorities as there were limited places in those institutions.
“Some of these challenges result in urban schools failing to meet the growing demand for places in schools of choice.
“To speedily address this, district placement teams have been activated,” he pointed out.
The provincial education department is also continuing with the exercise of merging and rationalising small and unviable schools particularly in rural and farming communities.
Such schools normally have less than 50 learners and a limited number of teachers.
“The objective is to ensure quality education for rural school learners.
“The rationalisation and re-alignment of schools seeks to achieve among others, close or merge schools with less than 50 learners where multi-grade teaching takes place and one teacher teaches across phases,” Ndaba explained.