As the 2024 school year officially kicks off, it is met with excitement by many learners and parents as they contemplate the next phase of their children’s education. Sadly, this is not the reality for all learners, especially those who have left primary school and are on the verge of entering the secondary phase of their education.

Too many Grade 8 learners across the country still have no idea where they will start their secondary education or in fact, when they will do so.

The current school’s admission policy, which was intended to streamline the process, appears to have the opposite effect. Children living close to schools in their area are still without placement, while other children who live further away have been afforded places for 2024.

Additionally, children who have been accepted to, for example, five schools, but omitted to decline the unwanted offers, leave the online system clogged up as those who were not accepted at all have to wait for schools to determine whether all the places offered will be filled as the school year starts.

This begs the question: where are things going wrong? The Department of Education seems to be blaming schools and schools are in turn blaming the department. And what about those parents who never bothered to decline unwanted offers? With seemingly no one at fault or being held accountable, where does this leave unplaced learners?

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘Oh, all the schools are full’ – The frustrating wait for a place in class is real

The right to education is firmly entrenched in section 29(1)(a) of the Constitution. As part of this right, it is generally accepted that children should be provided with education opportunities to better not only themselves but society at large.

It is further accepted that access to education is in a child’s best interests. The right entrenched in section 29 is additionally confirmed in the South African Schools Act of 1996 which provides that all children between the ages of seven and 15 are compelled to attend school. This category generally includes children entering high school.

But what happens to those rights and interests when a child is denied admission to a public school in their area and parents simply do not have the resources to afford private schooling? Should we just overlook these children’s constitutionally protected rights?

If we do, we fail our children.

Parents trying to get placement for their children, wait outside of Bloekombos Secondary School on 18 January, 2024. (Photo: Shelley Christians)

Read more in Daily Maverick: Western Cape Education Department strives to place 2,500+ learners as new school year begins

So what is the solution? Clearly, the current admissions process is problematic. Applying online is fraught with problems and the Department of Education cannot seem to manage the process properly.

This is by no means restricted to a particular province. Instead, numerous provinces have complaints of this nature.

Furthermore, while schools have the option of accepting or declining applications, there seems to be a disconnect between these two entities, which leaves learners in a veritable no-man’s land. Is the solution to merely revert back to the previous policy?

It would seem that learners have a better chance of being placed at schools close to their homes or close to their parents’ places of employment if this were to happen.

Read more in Daily Maverick: At least 1,000 embattled learners still struggling to find placements in Eastern Cape schools

As it stands, children living further away are sometimes accepted, which may speak to “the need for geographical and spatial transformation” as provided for in the National Education Policy Act, 1996 (Act No 27 of 1996), but this still excludes children living close to schools (where parents specifically rented or purchased property to provide their children with access to adequate schooling in their area).

Whatever the solution, it is evident that the current system is failing our children. The schools’ admissions policy is simply not meeting the most basic of education needs.

How can so many children not know where they will start the next phase of their education, especially when some of them applied to more than five (sometimes, even nine) schools in their surrounding area? DM

Dr Carmel Jacobs is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Private Law at the University of the Western Cape.