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File image: A classroom with desks.
Advocacy group, Section27, has called on government to build more schools in an effort to resolve learner placement issues.
This comes as many Gauteng parents queue at education district offices this morning hoping to secure school placements for their children.
Since the inception of the online school registration system in 2016, learner placements have been a major point of concern as many end up without a school in the new year despite having applied before the deadline.
Senior Attorney at Section27’s Education Rights Unit, Demichelle Petherbridge says, “We know many, many learners have been successfully placed but the kind of reports we’re seeing at the moment is that parents are not even getting placed in schools that they had selected when applying on the online GDE system.”
Petherbridge says, “What this is telling us is that schools have filled up extremely quickly, we have very long waiting lists, we know that there are severe instances of over-crowding at schools. So I think the solution here is that we need more schools. I know that that’s an incredibly big ask but I really think it’ll take drastic measures to solve this ultimately.”
PODCAST: Interview with Demichelle Petherbridge on SA fm’s First Take programme:
The Gauteng Legislature Portfolio Committee on Infrastructure says it is in possession of a list of schools among them Rust Ter Vaal Secondary, New Simunye and Thubelihle Secondary Schools and Ditau Primary School, which are yet to be completed.
The committee has called for action against project managers responsible for delays in school infrastructure projects. -Additional reporting by Tshepo Phagane.
