Court finds WC Education Dept admissions system flawed

Learners walking, picture taken from behind.

Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) have welcomed the recent Western Cape High Court ruling that the Western Cape Education Department’s Learner Admissions system unfairly discriminates against Black and marginalised learners.

The organisations approached the Western Cape High Court in April, asking that it declare the Western Cape Education Department’s failure to plan for and timeously place late applicant learners in schools unconstitutional and in violation of their rights to dignity and equality.

Representative of the Equal Education Law Centre, Sithenkosi James says, “All of those areas are actually where you find the majority of Black learners – so when they came to us to tell us of all the lived experiences each and every year – the fact that they spent the entire year without having been placed in a school – it raised so much concern for us, and that’s when we decided that it is actually something that we need to take up with the department. Before we came to a point where there was litigation instituted against the Western Cape Education Department, there were letters that we sent out to the department, outlining all of these issues.”

It is important to understand what collaboration, schools, donor-funded schools, & intervention facilities truly mean. While they may appear attractive at first, if left unchallenged, they carry serious consequences for our schooling communities and the broader education system. pic.twitter.com/mgg0N22riF

— Equal Education (@equal_education) December 5, 2025