POOR HOMEWORK
The root of the school placement problem
The thousands of children who had not been enrolled by the time schools opened last week will be placed, albeit late
As schoolchildren around the country dusted off their school shoes, packed their school bags and tucked in their crisp new shirts, there were many who were left in limbo, without having a school to go to. In Gauteng, around 31‚000 were still waiting to be placed on the first school day last week. Of these, 17‚000 were learners whose parents had applied on time for their admission to Gauteng schools and 14,000 were late applications that were received towards the end of 2017. This year Gauteng experienced an influx of 4,500 new learners who had not applied at all. This was better than the same time last year, when the number was 9,000. In the Western Cape, more than 11,000 learners still need placement. Frustrated parents have for the past three years complained about the failures of the Gauteng computerised placement system, but queuing up at education department offices over the past week hasn’t brought much luck either. The struggle for education authorities is undoing the structu...
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