AfriForum is concerned about the large number of learners who have not been placed in schools for 2017. The fact that numerous provinces do not have enough schools to accommodate learners once again indicates that the Department of Education is incompetent and continuously neglects to monitor the population growth and movements in the country in order to build schools according to necessity.
Certain provinces have double the number of learners of what the available schools have capacity for, which indicates the extent of the problem. However, it also points to growing space for private education institutions.
“Many parents in Gauteng, for example, have experienced problems with the online registration platform which also attributed to many learners not being registered at schools. Learners who have not been placed in schools will have to wait up to a month to get feedback from the department on whether they possibly have placement in a school,” says Carien Bloem, Project Coordinator for Education at AfriForum.
“The Department of Basic Education plays political games with schools’ language policies, names and emblems that must be changed, which has great cost implications, while there is a more urgent need for more schools – especially schools that can provide education to learners in their mother tongue,” Bloem adds.
AfriForum is also concerned that the situation would be exploited and pressure would be put on Afrikaans single-medium schools to provide multilingual education. AfriForum has already received complaints from Afrikaans schools who are under this pressure in this regard and is willing to assist schools with advice.
Visit AfriForum’s one-stop education page for support with regards to any education-related problems or queries you may have through the course of the year.