Following weeks of an intense standoff between frustrated parents and basic education department officials, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has announced that they have successfully placed all of their school learners for the 2023 school year.
According to the department, only 176 Grade 8 students in Tshwane West still need to be placed as of Monday, 30 January 2023. This cohort is made up of the 223 initially unplaced learners in the above-mentioned district, 47 of whom have since been placed at Amandasig Secondary School and are now enrolled there on a rotating basis.
The department has also stated that these 176 unplaced learners will then be allocated to a brand-new satellite school, which will be known as North Park Secondary School. These learners will begin attending class on Monday 6 February 2023.
Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane went on to say that in their efforts to increase placement capacity, they have introduced mobile classes in some of these schools to subsequently convert them into brick and water schools in the long term.
The intention is to build brick-and-mortar classes, increase the capacity of brick-and-water classes and build new schools which will then reduce the presence of mobile classes in certain schools. That is what we have in the long term in terms of dealing with the permanence of these structures.
In addition to this, out of the 501 unplaced Grade 8 learners in Kempton Park, 106 were sent to schools that had openings for them, and the remaining 395 were also placed in a satellite school that was registered as New Kempton Park Secondary School.
However, feedback has not been entirely positive from that district, as some parents have raised safety concerns about the safety of the school’s surrounding area due to its proximity to a railroad.
In response, the MEC reiterated that this is a temporary measure, and to make sure that learners at the school are kept safe.
The department has also said that engagements with the parents will continue in a meeting with the MEC scheduled for Tuesday, 31 January 2023. The department has also said that its main priority is to ensure that all learners are placed despite the influx of new learners that have relocated to the province.
