The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) says that 99% of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners have been placed at schools around the province. However, there are hundreds of learners who are yet to find out which school they will be attending during the 2023 school year.
Term 1 of the 2023 school year will begin on Wednesday 18 January 2023 in the Western Cape. The WCED revealed that 111,000 learners have been placed at schools in Grade 1 and Grade 8 classrooms in the Western Cape. However, the department is yet to place 680 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners at school in the province.
WCED media liaison officer Millicent Merton, says that while hundreds of learners still remain unplaced, there has been an improvement in the provincial education departments' ability to place learners. At the same time in 2022, more than 50,000 learners were unplaced.
Having adequate space at schools for learners continues to remain a challenge for the entire country. In an effort to mitigate these challenges, the WCED has undertaken a school infrastructure delivery programme which will see more schools being built to accommodate more learners.
This programme aims to deliver 842 additional classrooms with at least 26,000 places for learners in the province. This programme includes building three brick and mortar new and replacement schools, building five new mobile schools and undertaking seven rapid school build projects.
The Rapid School Build Programme aims to build seven schools within six months which will accommodate 3,200 learners. These schools will be located in Delft, Atlantis, Rivergate, Lwandle, Wallacedene, Hout Bay and Century City.
The WCED added that a sufficient number of teaching posts will be allocated to schools in preparation for the completion of additional classrooms. This comes after the department announced in 2022 that more than 1,000 additional teachers will be appointed by the department.