More than 2 600 Grade 1 and 8 learners still needs to be placed in the WC

Despite the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) having to place more than 2 600 learners in Grade 1 and Grade 8 for the 2024 school year, it says it is ready to welcome learners on Wednesday.

‘’Our department and school has been hard at work preparing for schools to reopen. Procuring 49 million in textbooks, 24 million in stationary, R17.5 million in furniture, and R2 million in equipment, so it’s all systems go for the new school year,’’ says David Maynier, Education MEC.

PICTURE: Pixabay

The department says before schools closed on 12 December2023, 99.43% of the learners for whom applications were received for Grade 1 and 8 for the 2024 school year.

However, new applications were received during the school holidays for learners whose parents had not previously applied.

Maynier says his department anticipates that they will receive many more applications in the coming weeks.

‘’We have already received 609 new, extremely late applications in the first 10 days of January 2024, and placement is currently in progress for 2 636 Grade 1 and 8 learners.

With schools closed, it has been difficult to finalise placement, and once schools open for teachers on Monday 15 January 2024, this process will resume.’’

‘’The next key date in the admissions calendar is the 10th day SNAP survey, which is critically important for two reasons: it will indicate where there are still spaces available for learners needing a place, and it will allow us to more effectively allocate resources to accommodate the extremely late applications we are receiving, and will still receive,’’ he added.

Maynier says the challenge with extremely late applications is that they do not know how many new applications they will receive; where the extremely late placement will be required; the grades, language, and ages of the learners; and the specific subjects and specialised needs of the learners.

‘’We ask for patience as we make progress in placing these extremely late applicants. We cannot predict where and when these late applicants will arrive, and this has made planning our resource allocation in advance extremely difficult. We urge any parent who has not yet applied for the 2024 school year to do so immediately at their education district office,’’ said David Maynier, Education MEC.

 

Done by: Mitchum George