Gauteng school placements delayed by parents' preferences, says Lesufi
The Department of Education said there are still 126 schools with available spots for children to be enrolled in, but parents don't prefer those schools.
JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said "choice and not availability " was delaying the placement of the last few children who have not yet been placed in a school.
The department said there are still 126 schools with available spots for children to be enrolled in, but parents did not want those schools.
Lesufi confirmed that there were 700 children who still needed to be placed for this year's academic calendar.
“The only challenge is that there are parents that prefer certain schools and that school is full or we have placed them in schools which are far from where they stay or where they work and we are trying to sort out these things.
Surely, by the end of this month, all those matters will be sorted out.”
However, there are more than 8,400 children who have applied for late registration just on Wednesday morning, having missed all the opportunities given last year.
Lesufi explained that this was the major problem.
“What it means is that I must get a teacher, I must get a desk and I must get a textbook … It’s practically impossible to cope, but we’ll give it a try.”
Let our children learn! Changing the face of township schools @EducationGP1 pic.twitter.com/KwXL9OsLCx
Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) January 12, 2022
In 2022 we must do everything we can to return to a flying machine. No single school, department or municipality has an excuse. We must resolve all basic service delivery issues. We must get all learners back to school & deliver optimal outcomes. We want a province thats pumping pic.twitter.com/kXjbalaQVv
David Makhura (@David_Makhura) January 12, 2022