Almost 1088 learners did not return to Gauteng schools for the 2021 school year and are said to have left during lockdown level 5 with some not having written their final exams.
Lesufi explains that these learners did not come back or ask for transfer letters which means that they've vanished into the system.
Majority of these learners are in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said:
We are worried whether it was a problem of alcohol or drugs or problems of pride"
These learners are now being tracked.
There are still more than 200 learners who have not been placed in schools in the province.
The MEC has said that some of the unplaced learners are coming from outside of Gauteng as he said:
Unfortunately, we have had a huge increase of people coming outside our province and also outside our country that made late applications.
102 000 applications came from outside of the province. Some of these applications come from learners who had trouble getting placed in schools.
Lesufi went on to tell Radio 702 that they aim to clear the backlogs by Wednesday.
He also said that Covid cases within schools seem to be manageable with learners, teachers and support staff testing positive.
Less than 150 teachers have tested positive in Gauteng and the same goes for learners.
It is safe to return our learners to school ... it is quite clear that frontline staff that is doing the scanning and temperature tests, that advance team is doing a good job.
Schools in the province is said to have plans in place should a third wave of infections hit.
