While the provincial education department is still struggling to accommodate learners at schools, a parent of Western Cape Sport School (WCSS) has raised concern about overcrowding.
A parent, who asked to remain anonymous for the sake of her child, said WCSS had to take in an additional 280 learners this year, but extra classrooms, furniture and teachers were not in place as was agreed upon with the department.
The parent claimed classrooms were overcrowded with up to 60 or more learners per class.
“Parents were informed on Friday 19 January that the Grade 8, 9 and 10 learners would be placed on a ‘Covid-like’ rotation schedule to attend school on alternative days as from 22 January for the term.
“At a parent meeting held on 25 January the principal could not give us an exact date, or if this arrangement will only be for the term and if the necessary extra classes will be ready for the second term.”
The parent felt communication could be better and that the situation was “to the detriment of our children who must cope with this, which causes severe stress and anxiety as they are getting less class time.”
At one stage learners had to sit in the school hall without desks, which was not conducive to learning, which is a basic right that children have, the parent said.
Education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the school had agreed to accept seven additional mobile classrooms for the 2024 school year.
She acknowledged the department had allocated additional teachers, furniture and learner-support materials to the school.
“The school would take in approximately 280 additional learners. The completion of the mobile classrooms is set to take place next month (March).
Unfortunately, uncertainty over our infrastructure budget allocations, delayed the majority of our infrastructure projects. (TygerBurger reported before on the national government cut of more than R700 million from the provincial education budget).
Hammond said the mobile classrooms are currently on track for completion by the end of March.
“In the interim, the school has implemented a Temporary Revised Education Plan (known as TREP), which involves the rotation of learners. This is a temporary situation until the mobiles are completed in March. It affects Grade 8 and 9 learners only.”
She said a meeting with parents was held in January to explain the situation.
“The biggest Grade 10 class was 41, but this was due to the allocation of subject choices and changes. The ratio of learner-to-classroom in Grade 10 is 32.8:1, but depending on the choice of subjects this can increase or decrease.
“The school also reportedly found that a number of learners were sitting in classes of subjects that were not their subject choice, something that was rectified,” Hammond said.
Placements
Provincial Education Minister David Maynier said last week (16 February) the department had received 3 579 Grade 1 and Grade 8 ‘‘extremely late applications’’ for learners since 1 January.
“The massive current financial year R716,4 million blow to our overall budget last year came at a time when we needed the funds to build more schools and employ more teachers, as admission demands ramped up.’’
Maynier said the uncertainty created by the collapse of the national budget process meant the department could not enter into contracts or start building projects until late last year when the adjustment budget was announced.
“Despite these challenges, our officials and contractors have been hard at work delivering new schools and additional classrooms at great speed. So far, we have completed 255 additional classrooms.”
Classrooms have been added to existing schools across the province, where demand for placement is highest.
“We have a further 317 classrooms currently in construction at new and existing schools, with delivery dates starting from the end of the month.”
As extremely late applicants arrive resources need to be redirected to accommodate them, Maynier explained.
On 15 February 124 808, or 99,6%, of the unique Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications for the 2024 school year were placed.
Maynier said most of the cases where placement is still in progress are extremely late applicants.
Applications are considered in three groups: those received on time, late applications received after the deadline but before the end of 2023, and extremely late applications received since the start of this year.
On-time applicants are prioritised, but Maynier said they are facing a challenge with parents being uncontactable.
He asked for patience in placing extremely late applicants. “They have arrived without warning, and we cannot predict where and when these late applicants will arrive. This has made planning our resource allocation in advance extremely difficult.”
