Gauteng Education MEC pleads with parents to accept learner placements at ‘on par’ township schools
Amid concerns with the placement of learners in schools, Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane says they hope all in limbo will be placed within 10 days, as he continues to lobby parents to accept placements in township schools.
The scale of the problem remains currently unknown as officials are still awaiting reports from schools, circular and district offices, but one of the common themes has been parents refusing to accept placements in township schools through the department’s centralised school admissions policy.
Chiloane addressed the matter briefly during the provincial department’s Back to School and school readiness programme at the Kgatoentle Secondary School in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, where he was accompanied by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
Chiloane said pupils who had applied on time had been placed, and a further 10 days would be required to ensure that those who were still not placed were allocated schools accordingly.
Vouching for the Kgatoentle Secondary School in Ga-Rankuwa as one of the state-of-the art township schools, Chiloane said the department was gradually changing the education landscape in the province and called on parents to cooperate.
“We are changing the landscape of our township schools. We have been getting questions about why are you saying townships schools because people want to take their kids to the former Model C schools.
“And I will say to them, with evidence, the township schools produce quality. Here at Kgatoentle Secondary, you have produced a 100% matric pass rate, and that is something that we should be proud of because there are Model C schools that don’t achieve that, but here in Ga-Rankuwa, in the middle of the township, you have demonstrated that an old school bag carries the same load as a new school bag,” he said.
In his bid to convince parents, Chiloane said the township schools were now the “backbone of our success”, claiming results were better compared to suburban or former Model C schools.
“We have lawyers, doctors, and a president that come from our township schools; we have ministers; all those people who are changing the landscape of our society come from our township schools.
“We want to produce what our country needs, because you are the future,” he said.
Chiloane said it was unfortunate that some parents and learners had applied late for school placements, and as a result, this could lead to some learners being placed at schools that were far from home.
He said they would rely on the department’s scholar transport in such instances.
Reports on Wednesday showed there were placement issues at some schools, including in Cosmo City, Roodepoort, and other areas.
“We are better off this year than we were last year. We have managed to place all those who completed applications on time, and the parents were notified. There is no parent who can say we never got a call or notification about where the child must go.
“It’s just that where I am going is not where I want my child to go. That is a question that has been dominant,” he said.
“This school is a demonstration that also our township schools are among the best of the best; in fact, the best technical school in our province is a township technical school. The perception that we are dealing with from our parents that only former Model C schools provide good education is not true, and even on infrastructure, you can see that we are continuing to improve so that they are also on par with the schools that were built by the previous regime,” he said.
Motshekga said about 10 days could be required to sort out any placement backlog issues, which would allow the department to identify where there were spaces and allocate them accordingly.
Meanwhile, Motshekga, who is expected to announce the matric results pass rate on Thursday night for the 15th consecutive year, said in the seventh administration, the department wanted to move beyond just announcing the percentage point increase or decrease and the best performing provinces, but move towards speaking to the indicators of the National Development Plan.
“Moving forward, we must look at the NDP indicators. We must say to you: this is we are performing on in math, science, and keeping children in school; we need to move away from saying which province performs best because we can see the system stabilising now,” she said.
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