The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) said it is ready for the new school year that gets under way on Wednesday. However, the department is expecting more late applications over the next few days. 

Schools opened for inland provinces last week. 

Education MEC David Maynier said on Monday that the department was ready for the 1.2 million pupils expected to take their places in classrooms around the province, as 35,872 teachers and 7,578 public service staff returned to Western Cape schools on Monday to prepare for the new term. 

However, there were still problems around late applications and infrastructure. 

Late applications

Maynier said that by 14 January the department had resolved 117,844 (99.2%) of Grade 1 and 8 placements for 2023. However, it was still in the process of placing 955 (0.8%) of Grade 1 and 8 pupils. 

Read in Daily Maverick: “Massive improvement’ in school placement, says Western Cape Education Department”

“Our officials and schools have done a phenomenal job under extreme pressure to make sure that they find a place for every child,” said Maynier. 

Despite the department having managed to place more than 50,000 pupils in grades 1 to 8, Maynier said the provincial education system was “still under severe admission pressure”.

On average, over the past seven years, 21,000 pupils from outside the province had been registered in the province for the first time each year. 

“Schools are full, and we are going to struggle to place additional learners for whom extremely late applications are received,” he said. 

Thus far, the department has received 25,212 late applications for grades 1 and 8 – after the 15 April 2022 cut-off date for applications – including 272 “extremely late applications received after schools closed on 15 December 2022”, said Maynier. The province expects more late applications once schools reopen. 

“It is very difficult to place learners at this extremely late stage, and parents arriving now must be prepared for a delay in the placement of their children… we continue to urge parents to apply on time for their children.” 

In addition to placing pupils, Maynier said the department has completed 561 classrooms for the first day of school. More will be completed in the coming weeks. In the same period in 2022, 212 classrooms had been built.  

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“We have made alternative arrangements to accommodate the learners… this includes using alternative rooms within the schools temporarily, such as halls and computer labs, with the teachers that were allocated to the new class in advance of the school year,” said Maynier. 

Murray High School

Last week, the ANC in the Western Cape launched its Back to School programme by visiting Murray High School in Plettenberg Bay (Bitou municipality), where it claimed the WCED had promised 17 mobile units but that these had not been delivered. 

Maynier told Daily Maverick on Monday that the allegation that the mobile units had not been delivered was “simply not true”. 

He said five additional mobile classrooms were promised and delivered “well ahead of schedule before school opening at Murray High School… This was over and above the four existing mobile classrooms already installed this year.” 

The department aimed to build a new facility opposite Murray High School as part of its rapid school build programme “as soon as land becomes available, to deal with admission pressure in Bitou”. 

On 14 January, Bitou mayor Dave Swart said that apart from the new classrooms there would be an additional ablution block and more teachers. 

Swart said a council resolution passed in May 2022 allowed for one hectare of municipal land opposite the school to be used to build a junior high school, which would accommodate grades 8 and 9, while the existing school would be used for grades 10 to 12.  

“Latest information indicates a delivery date of the junior high school during the second term of 2023,” said Swart. DM