With learner placements and infrastructure still being an issue in many coastal communities, education departments stated their readiness to begin with the 2023 academic year.
Schools in coastal provinces (the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape) are expected to re-open tomorrow for their new academic year.
On Monday, frustrated parents and guardians gathered outside the Northern Cape Department of Education in Kimberley with the hope of getting placements for their Grade R, 1 and 8 children.
Parents have been complaining about the online application system saying that it has not been helpful and some of their children were placed kilometres away from their residential areas.
In terms of infrastructure provision, the Department of Education in Eastern Cape said they have made significant progress in the past 12 months to ensure that sufficient education facilities are available.
"We have a number of ongoing programmes such as relocation of prefabricated buildings; provision of additional classrooms,; furniture; water and sanitation; school maintenance and building of new schools and hostels which are underway," the department said.
However, the department stated that there were several unplanned issues which demanded their immediate attention such as schools that were vandalised by criminal elements in their community and also schools that were damaged by inclement weather during festive holidays.
"It also maps out our plans to provide consistent quality infrastructure to all schools, with infrastructure needs across the province," it added.
Meanwhile, in the Western Cape, teachers reported on Monday in preparation for welcoming thousands of pupils to schools.
On the infrastructure issue, WC MEC for Education David Maynier said they were implementing an unprecedented school infrastructure delivery programme, and the results could speak for themselves.
"We have already completed 561 classrooms for the first day of school as a result of work continuing through the traditional builders’ holiday, with the remaining classrooms underway to be completed in the coming weeks.
"To put this into perspective, 212 additional classrooms were completed in time for the opening of the 2022 school year," he said.
He said textbooks ordered by schools were delivered by October 2022, at a cost of R62 million. In addition, stationery to the value of R39 million, furniture to the value of R50 million, and other equipment to the value of R1.6 million were also delivered by December.
Addressing learner admissions, he said they resolved 117 844, or 99.2%, of Grade 1 and 8 placement requests for the 2023 school year and were in the process of placing 955, or 0.8%, of Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for the school year.
Despite the progress, Maynier said the education system was under admission pressure.
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