The Department of Basic Education (DBE) briefed the Parliamentary Committee on Basic Education on its readiness for the school year earlier this week.
Nearly 2.5 million new learners have been placed in schools, up from almost 2.4 million in November 2024. This represents a placement rate of 99.2%, with only 0.8% of learners still awaiting placement.
While the percentage of unplaced learners is less than 1%, it translates to thousands facing uncertainty over where they will attend school.
A shocking revelation of the meeting was that, at the start of the 2025 school year, 28,371 children were unplaced.
The vast majority of unplaced learners were in entry grades: 6,676 in Grade R, 4,455 in Grade 1, and 10,211 in Grade 8.
The DBE explained that schools continue to receive placement requests, often due to socio-economic factors such as new job offers in different provinces requiring families to relocate.
Family changes like divorce or bereavement, and general relocations also contributed. Some parents are refusing placements at allocated schools, instead demanding placements at their preferred schools.
Where are most of the unplaced learners?
The province with the highest number of unplaced learners was the Western Cape, where 7,280 did not have a classroom on the first day of school. This comprised of 594 Grade 1 learners and 2,331 Grade 8 learners.
4,355 of these learners needed to be placed in Grade R. Grade R enrolment is compulsory under the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, which President Ramaphosa said will be fully implemented in 2025.
Gauteng (4,573 unplaced learners), Mpumalanga (3,414 unplaced learners), and the Free State (2,282 unplaced learners) also had a high number of unplaced learners.
Committee member Mandla Shikwambana questioned whether the delayed implementation of the BELA Bill caused the admissions backlog. Several provincial education departments had not placed all learners as the 2025 school year began.
Minister Gwarube assured committee members that the BELA Act will be implemented, explaining that it is impossible for a Minister not to implement an enacted Act.
As we stand, the BELA Act is fully implementable and is being implemented. As a department, we have held workshops with officials to ensure they are abreast with the Act.
