The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) is yet to find schools for 571 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for the 2023 academic year which started on Wednesday. Earlier this week, the department said there were 236 grade 1 and 1 158 grade 8 learners still waiting to start schooling.
On Friday, the department said it is working on placing 97 Grade 1 and 474 Grade 8 pupils that still haven’t been placed in schools..
The GDE spokesperson, Steve Mabona said the department is also building satellite schools to increase school capacity in high pressure areas in the Metros.
“Accordingly, placement challenges within our identified high-pressure areas – where certain schools received a much higher number of applications than the number of learners they can accommodate – are being attended to through a variety of interventions which will ensure that all learners are placed.
“In order to alleviate capacity pressure, the GDE is building satellite schools in high-pressure areas. These are schools which are an extension of certain high-pressure schools, but are built on a different site or geographical area not far from the main school,” he added.
A satellite school for Florida High School in Johannesburg West has already been built and two satellite schools are under construction in Tshwane North while kempton Park in Ekurhuleni will use specialist rooms for teaching.
Olifantsfontein Primary School will be assisted with the delivery of more mobile classrooms to accommodate all unplaced learners at that school.
The Department has urged parents to apply for other grades except for Grade 1 and Grade 8 on 24 January after it has finished the headcount.
“Parents who seek to apply for inner grades outside of Grade 1 and Grade 8 are strongly encouraged to visit their nearest GDE District Office after our 10 Day Headcount on 24 January 2023.
“This will put our Districts in a better position to give parents the necessary assistance they need for placement as available spaces at schools would have been determined at that stage,” said Mabona.
The department assured parents iit would develop a catch-up programme for pupils who have missed days of teaching and learning.
