WESTERN CAPE NEWS - To accommodate the growth of enrolment figures in the province, 15 new additional schools and over 480 teachers will be needed, says Debbie Schäfer, the Western Cape minister of education.
Schäfer says as it stands, the schooling system in the province has increased by 18 285 learners compared to last year, 16 285 of which are from outside the province.
"Today, we have approximately 5 700 unplaced learners. 5 510 learners applied late, after last year's application period had closed. We expect more new late applications in the coming two weeks."
She says they encourage parents who plan to move to the Western Cape not to deregister their child or children from their current schools before making sure that there is a place at a school in the Western Cape.
According to Schäfer the WCED ordered additional mobile classrooms last year and has ordered an additional 70 mobile classrooms this week once learner numbers had been confirmed. The WCED completed six schools in 2018 and another new school will be completed by April. Three mobile schools have also been completed to accommodate additional growth in hotspot areas. Also, 46 additional mobile classrooms have been erected in areas identified for growth, as well as 34 brick and mortar classrooms. 10 mobile classrooms are also being placed at various special schools to accommodate learners.
Schäfer says in 2019, four new schools, two replacement schools and five new mobile schools will be completed. "We are also completing the building of 24 Moladi classrooms at seven schools. [Moladi is an alternative building technology.] But even with all this delivery, it is simply not enough to keep up with the demand for placement in Western Cape schools. And the procurement and erection of mobile classrooms is not an overnight process," she adds.
Other issues are that when a student moves from one province to the next, the money does not follow that student.
She says the more than 130 000 learners that have moved to the Western Cape from other provinces over the past five years, mainly from the Eastern Cape, have placed the education system in the Western Cape under considerable pressure.
"One of the challenges arises when people move to the province without planning in advance or without enrolling their children at a school. It, therefore, makes it impossible for the WCED to foresee and plan accordingly."
Other issues are that when a student moves from one province to the next, the money does not follow that student. The WCED then has to stretch existing resources over the whole system, and it places immense strain on schools and forces them to change the plans they have made. There are also budget constraints like when R300-million was diverted from the infrastructure budget to plan for continuation of schools in the event of Day Zero.
Schäfer says it is unacceptable that they have been receiving funding based on outdated information.
"While there has been some progress in this regard, over the last number of years we have simply not been compensated for the additional numbers, whilst other provinces have been cushioned from the effects of losing people."
She says their commitment is however always to provide the best quality education for every child, in every classroom and in every school in the province.
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