Opening 2022 online admission now will ensure learner placement before new academic year commences

6 May 2021

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Gauteng Department of Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi to consider the DA’s plea to open the online admission process for the 2022 academic year starting this month so that the finalisation of all schools’ placements can be concluded in October this year.

Earlier this year, the DA had called on Lesufi to open online admissions at the beginning of April, a suggestion that was flatly ignored.

By moving the online admission earlier, this will ensure that no learner misses a day of schooling when the new academic year begins as all allocations will be done timeously.

This will also ensure that lost time during rotational learning and teaching due to Covid regulations is recovered. Learners are currently losing out as they only attend two days per week and the academic year has been reduced.

Based on previous experience, late opening of the online admission during the year has caused many frustrations for both parents and the department, as not all learners are placed before the start of the new academic year.

Parents have been left frustrated and angry because their children have not been allocated to the school of their choice. In some instances, their children were not allocated at any school and did not know whether they would be allocated.  On the other hand, the department has found itself to be under pressure to allocate all the learners and fighting with parents over school placement.

Since the department initiated the online admission process, thousands of learners remains unplaced before the start of the new academic year and will only be allocated schools after a month or two.

The fact that not all learners begin the new academic year at the same time is a big concern for the DA. These learners are dangerously falling behind in the curriculum and will have been denied their right to access to basic education.

An earlier opening of online submissions will benefit both the department and parents; this will provide parents with parental choice to select the schools they want for their children and ensure that they have enough time in doing so, while preparing for the new academic year. This will also afford the department enough time to plan and ensure that all learners are allocated schools before the start of the 2022 academic year.

The department has failed in the past to use the online application system to plan for the new academic year placement because the process is done very late.

It is the department’s responsibility to provide necessary resources to schools before the start of the new academic year, so that learning and teaching will not be disrupted like it has in years before.

The DA will continue to put pressure on MEC Lesufi to consider our plea of moving the online admission earlier to ensure that the placement is done before the beginning of the new academic year.

Issued by Khume Ramulifho, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, 6 May 2021