With two days to go before coastal schools re-open, hundreds of angry parents have gathered at the offices of the Northern Cape Department of Education in Kimberley.
The parents were hoping to get placements for their children for grade R, one and eight.
Many say the process of applying on the online system has been a nightmare and communication from the department is poor.
One of the parents, Samantha Farmer says, “My fear is that my child is not going to be placed for grade R and then I’m going to have to do this whole process for grade 1 next year as well. I’m just disappointed every year we face the same exact thing with the department but there’s no implementation, there’s no improvement. I just feel I’m going to disappoint my son because he is waiting for me to take him to school on Wednesday.”
The Northern Cape Education Department maintains it has placed 99% of learners who applied on time.
The department says it hopes to place all outstanding learners by the opening of schools or within the week.
The Northern Cape Education MEC, Zolile Monakali explains: “The Northern Cape Department of Education is aware that some parents are anxious and still waiting for placement from the department. We call on parents to stay calm and allow the department to finalise the placements. The department received a total of 27 318 applications and managed to place 99% of learners thus far. We still have 280 unplaced learners.”
Parents unhappy with the Northern Cape online application system:
