Gauteng parents want admission pressure & overcrowding in schools addressed

JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng parents have urged the education department to address admission pressure and overcrowding in its schools.

 At the beginning of every academic year, some parents plead for help after failing to place their children in their preferred schools.

It seems this year is no exception.

While some parents have blamed the department’s online system, others said the number of schools was in sharp contrast to the space available in classrooms.

 As district offices across Gauteng closed, more than 200 parents who stood in spiralling queues in Soweto were forced to go home, unassisted.

"Our kids cannot be able to get the space because it's full of other kids coming from other places. In terms of the radius, I qualify but still, I couldn't get space."

One parent vented that the scramble for placement cannot continue year after year. She was one of a group of parents who queued outside the Roodepoort district offices looking for an answer after her daughter did not appear on the system.

 "We've been to schools, we submitted the documents but the children are yet not placed, even last year, it was the same problem."

 Meanwhile, some pupils have still not been placed, a day before classes resume.