The Democratic Alliance (DA) is urging the Gauteng Department of Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi to finalise online admission placement for Grade 1 and 8 before schools close to ensure that no learner misses a day of schooling when the 2022 academic year begins.
Failure by the department to allocate schools to learners before the school closes for this year will result in uncertainty as not all learners will be placed on time. Based on previous experience, delays in placement have had a huge impact on the future of children, where many learners across the province have missed months of schooling due to late placement.
The DA had cautioned the department to open the online admission process early so that they can finalise all placements before the end of November. It is important that this process is done to ensure proper planning for both parents and schools in preparing for the new academic year.
The DA believes that the department must use the current applications to provide additional resources to schools. This includes amongst others, recruiting more teachers, providing additional classrooms, building new schools, and delivery of LTSM.
While the DA supports online admission because it saves time for parents and schools, however, the current process is not transparent and raises many questions instead of offering solutions.
We demand that the online admission system must be reviewed as it takes away parental choice and creates uncertainty amongst parents as they are not sure whether their children will be placed or not.
Many learners across the province have lost out due to rotational learning and teaching, this will continue again next year as many learners are still waiting to be allocated schools. I have been inundated with calls from parents complaining that they are either not offered the school of their choice or they have not yet received any feedback from the department.
The department must finalise the placement of learners before schools close for the 2021 academic year to avoid any further disruption of learning and teaching in January and February next year.