Question NW658 to the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education
16 March 2023 - NW658
Thembekwayo, Dr S to ask the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education
Whether she has any Constitutional and/or statutory responsibility for the placement or rendering of assistance to the over 35 000 Gauteng Grade 1 to 8 learners who were not placed in schools for the 2023 academic year; if not, why not; if so, what is the responsibility and assistance she rendered?
Reply:
The responsibility of the Minister is to determine the Admission Policy and play, an oversight monitoring role to ensure its implementation. Placement of learners in schools, is the competency of the Provincial Education Department. In exercising the oversight responsibility in Provincial Education Departments (PEDs), and in Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) in particular, the Minister has held several meetings with the GDE to analyse its intervention plans, to ensure that learners were placed in schools in the midst of increased number of applications. The GDE was assisted in meeting with affected School Governing Bodies and affected communities, to jointly find solutions to the challenges at hand, including the:
a) allocation of of funds to schools to build classrooms;
b) supply of mobile classrooms;
c) increase of capacity in affected school and creating;
d) establishment of satellites schools linked to overcrowded schools; and
e) temporary use of specialist rooms as classrooms.
Learners have since been placed in Gauteng.