Both inland and coastal schools commenced with classes on 15 January 2025. With us now being a month into the new school year, there remains those learners who are awaiting placement at a school.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has revealed that they received 9 289 extremely late applications for admission into Grade 1 and Grade 8. This forms part of the unique Grade 1 and Grade 8 placement applications for the 2025 school year.
In a statement released, the WCED said:
As of 7 February 2025, we have resolved 131 800 or 98.8%, of the unique Grade 1 and Grade 8 placement applications for the 2025 school year, and are in the process of placing 1 586, or 1.2%, of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for the 2025 school year. This includes late and extremely late applications received as recently as the past week.
98.8% of learners with late and extremely applications for 2025 school admissions have now been admitted, with under 1 600 learners still needing to be placed. "It is important to note that the majority of the cases where placement is still in progress are extremely late applicants," said the department.
Of these, 308 who applied after the deadline but before 2025 are now being placed and 9 289 extremely late applications were received after 1 January 2025. The department is now in the process of placing 848 of the extremely late applications.
For applications submitted before the deadline, 430 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners are now being placed, with these learners being prioritised. WCED explains:
One of the key reasons for not being able to place these learners on our system is that their parents and caregivers are uncontactable. This may be a result of their contact details changing since making the original application and not informing us of the change, or they are not responding to our enquiries. It is therefore unclear how many of these parents may have either found placement in independent institutions or other provinces.
"We ask for patience as we make progress in placing these extremely late applicants, as we could not predict where and when these late applicants would arrive. This has made planning our resource allocation in advance extremely difficult," the WCED said.
The process of reallocating resources to accommodate these learners is underway. However, the department has said that it will take some time to complete, assuring that every effort is being made to place all remaining learners, with work continuing to finalise their placements.
Officials acknowledge the frustration parents may be experiencing and have urged them to remain patient, emphasising that every possible step is being taken to secure placements as fast as possible.
Expanding Access To Education
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has had to make provisions with budget constraints in place. However, the department has said that they plan to expand access to education across the province.
Soon, 283 new classrooms will become available with new school also being built in Lwandle, Wallacedene, Blue Downs, Philippi, Delft and Darling with additional mobile classrooms being placed at schools soon. 477 new teaching posts will also be made available to accommodate the increase in learners.
'A basic education is the vital foundation upon which our children’s post-school education and employment relies, so we deeply appreciate the hard work and long hours that our districts and infrastructure officials have done to expand access to education in the Western Cape."
