‘Children lost five months of learning’: Western Cape parents demand urgent learner placement

The sound of struggle songs echoed through Cape Town CBD on Monday, 15 June, as more than 200 parents, unplaced learners and activists marched from the Western Cape Provincial Legislature to the offices of the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED), demanding immediate school placements for children who have been out of school for months.

The march, organised by Equal Education, drew parents from Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, Strand and other communities across Cape Town. Some carried handwritten placards as they called on Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and Education MEC David Maynier to intervene in what they described as a deepening admissions crisis affecting predominantly black communities.

Struggling to find a school

Speaking to Daily Maverick during the march, parents described months of frustration and uncertainty as they tried to secure places for their children.

“From January this year, she has not gotten into a school despite my application last year. I wanted her to study Grade 10 here in Cape Town. This year, I realised that it was February, but my child is still without a school.

“I went to the department. They told me my child has a space in Litha Park High School [Khayelitsha], and I went to the school, where I was told that they do not have Grade 10. I was going up and down. I was struggling to get a proper response…

“My hope here today is that we show the number of unplaced learners and that we can get a school in the next term,” said parent Sandi Phuca.

Another parent, Kholeka Siyazi, said her son, who has learning difficulties, requires placement in a special school. Fighting back tears, she explained that she had encountered numerous obstacles while seeking assistance.

“My child is a slow learner; this was due to a car accident that he was involved in in Khayelitsha in 2018 while he was in Grade 1. I took him to the Eastern Cape and placed him in a school, but he always came back home crying that he was not happy because the teacher said he was dumb and shouting at him…

“I took him back to Cape Town so he could get schooling again. The previous school is now delaying me by not sharing a required document, preventing my child from getting into a special school here, because I am told there is a space for that. My child is now without a school, and I need someone to help me with my child,” Siyazi said.

Equal Education demands urgent action

Equal Education, a democratic movement of learners, post-school youth, parents and community members, says it has repeatedly raised concerns with the WCED about learner placements and discriminatory admission practices.

Deputy secretary of Equal Education, Nontsikelelo Dlulani, said the organisation has exhausted engagement with the department.

“Over the years, we’ve been meeting with the WCED, and at the end, we decided to take them to court in 2024 to say, place all learners in 2024 and 2025 that are still [not] in place immediately. The second part of our court case was around their school admission policy that is discriminating of black marginalised community learners.

“Today we are here because two weeks ago, on the 2nd of June, we were invited in the Standing Committee on Education in Parliament to speak about how much the system in the Western Cape is excluding and very discriminating of black learners in nationalised communities,” Dlulani said.

She added: “What is disheartening to us is that it is 50 years commemorating the youth of 1976. The youth of 1976 fought [against] the discriminating of policies that have to do with language. Learners from Khayelitsha and Gugulethu are fighting to just access the classroom and access education. We don’t see any change that is happening.”

Outside both the provincial legislature and the WCED offices, Equal Education read out its demands and handed over a memorandum calling for:

• The placement of all unplaced learners before the start of the third term of 2026;
• Clear individualised support and catch-up plans for affected learners;
• Equitable resource allocation and planning;
• Admission of learners regardless of documentation status;
• An investigative inquiry into non-placement cases and a door-to-door campaign to identify affected children;
• Mandatory sensitivity training for principals and school administrators;
• Clear, enforceable processes for admission of learners with special educational needs; and
• Provision of psycho-social support for out-of-school learners.

Winde and Maynier absent

Neither Winde nor Maynier was present to receive the memorandum, which angered many of the marchers. Officials from the premier’s office accepted the memorandum and undertook to ensure it received attention. A similar process unfolded at the WCED offices.

Responding to the march, Maynier rejected suggestions that the province was facing a learner placement crisis.

“At any given time of the year, there will be learners awaiting placement as parents relocate from another area or province, or apply extremely late. Each of these cases are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

“The lists of unplaced learners that Equal Education has provided to us this year have included only 55 learners, out of the hundreds of thousands of learners placed each year. The majority of the learners on these lists are extremely late applicants. We have nonetheless placed almost all of the learners, and are currently working on resolving the remainder, where we have also been hampered by parents being uncontactable,” Maynier said.

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However, Vanessa le Roux, founder of Parents for Equal Education South Africa, said the recurring admissions challenges disproportionately affect children of colour.

“We’ve joined this march, and I think at this point, parents are angry enough, because what we see here in the Western Cape, year after year, has become apparent that they are bringing apartheid segregation back, because each and every year, why does this only affect coloured, or children of colour?” Le Roux asked.

For many parents who marched through Cape Town’s streets on Monday, the issue extends beyond admissions statistics. They say it is about children who have already lost more than five months of learning and whose constitutional right to basic education remains unrealised. DM