Education
With regard to various news reports concerning the high number of unplaced learners who still have to be placed for the 2021 academic year – approximately 5 900 as last reported by the Minister in the House:
(1) (a) What method or methods has her Department used to accommodate the high number of unplaced learners since the start of the year, (b) what is the current best practice to place learners speedily and (c) what challenges does her Department face in this regard;
(2) with reference to the majority of unplaced learners in Grade 8, whether her Department is aware of the underlying causal factors; if so, (a) what are they and (b) how are they being addressed;
(3) what support does her Department receive annually from the national Department of Basic Education with the placement of learners?
The number of unplaced learners in the Western Cape as at 28 April 2021 is 949.
(1) (a) The online SAMI System provided data on potential spaces as the school captured their planned enrolment, i.e. the number of learners they indicated they could accommodate. Learners were accommodated accordingly in schools.
The WCED recently approved 342 additional teaching posts in areas where the demand for places has grown.
This reduced the number of unplaced learners from 11 580 in February 2021 to 2 550 on 22 April 2021.
On 22 April 2021 I announced that a plan had been made to place the remaining 2 550 learners, even though our schools are already at full capacity. The plan includes the provision of 129 mobile classrooms to schools, as well as the addition of teaching posts. While some schools already have extra classrooms available, others do require mobile classrooms. Unfortunately, the mobile classrooms take time to construct and can’t be placed immediately. However, schools that have received the additional teaching posts have agreed to accommodate learners in alternative spaces until the classrooms are constructed (such as the school hall or laboratory space).
We have had to reprioritise existing funding to fund this, and this means our future budget allocations will be negatively affected, as well as our current long-term plans.
(b) Best practice would be to have places available where they are needed. As we have communicated previously, we do not have the funding to accommodate all the learners that require placement.
Best practice is having dedicated teams in districts supporting parents in finding suitable placement options. The WCED has these teams in each district, however, they are hampered by the fact that schools are full in the areas that learners are requiring placement.
(c) Our needs are not being met with the required increase in budget. The sheer volume of the increase in learner numbers (over 19 000 additional learners in 2021) would require building and staffing 19 new schools in 2 months.
The lack of available land zoned for education, particularly in congested metro areas, is a challenge.
While accommodation is a concern in some communities that have grown rapidly, there is still the need for additional teachers to teach in those classrooms. Currently, our spend on personnel expenditure to non-personnel expenditure in public schools is 86:14, while national policy targets states it should be of the order of 80:20. Therefore, we are already, in terms of our budget spending above policy targets on personnel which affects the procurement of other goods and services and delivery.
In-migration and late applications puts significant pressure on the WCED to manage a timeous response.
(2) (a) There is a need to build more secondary schools in certain areas to meet the increased learner numbers coming from the primary schools. Late applications and late arrivals in 2021 also contributed towards this.
(b) The WCED has built 14 new secondary schools since 2016/17 to meet demands. Regarding the late applications, the WCED has launched a comprehensive advocacy campaign (radio, print, social media) to encourage parents to apply timeously. We have also introduced uniform admissions timelines for all public ordinary schools
(3) No support is provided.
