Extremely late applications received for 9 289 Grade 1 and 8 learners since 1 January 2025

Statement by Minister David Maynier, Minister of Education Western Cape
 

Despite severe budget constraints, the Western Cape Government is expanding access to education across our province. 

We have completed 283 new classrooms in January 2025, including new schools in Lwandle, Wallacedene, Blue Downs, Philippi, Delft and Darling. A further three new schools are scheduled for completion in March, and additional mobile classrooms will also be deployed to schools in the coming weeks. 

We are also adding up to 477 new growth teaching posts for our new schools and schools that have taken in a significant number of additional learners. 

A basic education is the vital foundation upon which our children’s post-school education and employment relies, so we deeply appreciate the hard work and long hours that our districts and infrastructure officials have done to expand access to education in the Western Cape.
 

Admissions update 

As of 7 February 2025, we have resolved 131 800 or 98.8%, of the unique Grade 1 and Grade 8 placement applications for the 2025 school year, and are in the process of placing 1 586, or 1.2%, of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for the 2025 school year. This includes late and extremely late applications received as recently as the past week.

It is important to note that the majority of the cases where placement is still in progress are extremely late applicants.  

• As such, we must consider applications in three groups:
  Applications received on time before the deadline;
• Late applications received after the deadline but before the end of 2024; and
• Extremely late applications received since the start of this year.

On-time applicants (applied up to 12 April 2024):

Placement is in progress for 430 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for whom applications were received on time (up to 12 April 2024). 

 One of the key reasons for not being able to place these learners on our system is that their parents and caregivers are uncontactable. This may be a result of their contact details changing since making the original application and not informing us of the change, or they are not responding to our enquiries. It is therefore unclear how many of these parents may have either found placement in independent institutions or other provinces. 

We will continue to prioritise these learners as far as possible. 

We appeal to all parents to alert us to any changes to their contact details, so that we can contact them with offers of placement as soon as spaces become available.
 

Late applicants (applied after 12 April 2024 but before 31 December 2024):
 

Placement is in progress for 308 of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for whom applications were received after the deadline for applications passed, but before the end of 2024. 

We also face problems with contacting these parents, and again urge parents to ensure that the district office has their updated details.
 

Extremely late applicants (applied from 1 January 2025 onwards):

Over the past few weeks, our department has been inundated with brand new, extremely late applications. 

We have received new, extremely late applications for 9 289 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners since 1 January 2025 for the 2025 school year. 

Placement is in progress for 848 of these Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for whom applications were received extremely late. 

We ask for patience as we make progress in placing these extremely late applicants, as we could not predict where and when these late applicants would arrive. This has made planning our resource allocation in advance extremely difficult. 

It will take some time to redirect resources to cater for these learners, and this is currently underway. We are leaving no stone unturned in our effort to place every learner, and we will continue to work to finalise placement for all remaining learners. 

We understand that the placement process can cause frustration for parents, and we ask for their patience and assure them that we are doing everything we can to find places for learners as quickly as possible.