The civil rights organisation AfriForum has instructed its legal team to direct a letter to the Department of Education to raise its concerns regarding the possible shortcomings of the school placement process. This follows the announcement by Panyaza Lesufi, MEC for Education in Gauteng, on 1 August that the province’s 2022 school placement process will finally commence this month.
The first phase of this process will start on 10 August 2021, when learners that are currently in grade 7 in public schools will be able to apply for placement in high schools. From 13 September this year, prospective grade 1 learners’ applications will be accepted. The Department anticipates that the placements will be completed by the end of the year.
In light of the chaos that prevailed in previous years with the online processes – while applications then had already opened in the first half of the year – AfriForum is concerned about the timeline of the placements. According to Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Head of Cultural Affairs, the ideal would be for schools to handle placements themselves, as had been done in the years before Gauteng implemented the online placement system. This should eliminate the back-and-forth correspondence between schools and the Department that took up many months in 2019 and 2020, ambiguity among parents about aspects such as the choice of language of instruction and specialist subjects, as well as uncertainty about the accommodation of children that are currently not in public schools.
“AfriForum will monitor the system to ensure that learners’ rights will not be violated. We encourage parents to take careful note of the deadlines, respond quickly when the placement processes open and ensure they have all the necessary information and documentation ready,” says Bailey.
AfriForum invites the public to bring any problems they experience with the system to our attention immediately at onderwys@antiek.afriforum.co.za.