For each of the Free State’s four District Municipalities, the Free State Department of Education provided a detailed breakdown of placed and unplaced learners for all grades.
In addition, the department has identified the hotspot towns for Grades R, 1, and 8 placement and registration as per District.
As part of the report, the Free State Department of Education pointed out that parents, mostly from township schools, disregarded the published closing dates for learner admissions.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga also mentioned that another contributing factor to the problem of overcrowding was common in schools that serve informal settlements due to immigration., whereby these parents start filing for applications at the start of the year.
Additionally, schools find it difficult to forecast projected numbers before the new year (Welkom and Bloemfontein) due to the growth in numbers in these communities.
According to the Education Department, there had been a high demand for admission in English medium schools as they were perceived to provide better quality education.
However, English medium schools faced challenges in managing and accommodating applications each and every year. This also resulted in insufficient schools in urbanised areas and limited spaces at schools of choice.
It had been reported that all Districts submitted their management plan to resolve all unplaced learners. However, more issues remain to be resolved, as Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Members raised their concerns about the province's pass rate
The Committee proposed that the root cause of learner dropouts ought to be investigated and intervention programmes should also be available for new learners.
