CONCERNS have been raised over the repeated high number of late school applications at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
Like previous years, frustrated parents grappled with a myriad of challenges as they try to apply to schools after the department closed its online applications for the 2023 academic year last month despite calls from political parties, parents and lobby groups to extend the deadline.
“Any application after this date will be deemed as a late application, and preference will be given to applications submitted by April 15,” the department stated at the time.
On Tuesday, the Equal Education Law Centre informed the Western Cape Legislature’s standing committee on Education that between April last year and March, more than 53 000 late applications were submitted to the department.
The meeting was convened to discuss issues relating to pupil admissions in the Western Cape. Challenges included inaccessibility to the internet, glitches in the online application process, little support for applicants and poor administration.
The ANC’s spokesperson on education Khalid Sayed said the figures were a cause for concern as the same problems were likely to continue into next year.
“It is not the parents fault but that of the system. It is also an indication of the failure of the district offices because you will find the same problem even next year,” he said.
“The (department) needs to deploy human resource officers to the identified hotspot areas and put in the pop up stations and assist parents,” he said.
In January last year, there were more 5 500 unplaced Grade 1 pupils and close to 10 500 Grade 8 pupils who did not have a school to attend.
And during the same period this year, the figure decreased to 3 589 pupils who were unplaced in both grades.
After the department closed applications, the department announced that they had received as many as 120 000 applications of which, as many as 57 000 were for Grade 8 placements.