MEC Lesufi announcement on Feeder Zones

Monday, 20 May 2016, the Constitutional Court, directed the MEC for Education in Gauteng to determine feeder zones for public schools in Gauteng province in the manner required by regulation 4(1) of the Admission of Learners to Public Schools within 12 months from the date of the judgment.

After assessing the complexity of the task, it was clear that the time allocated by the Constitutional Court was not sufficient and as such the Department applied for an 18 months extension which was granted, thus giving the Department a deadline, Tuesday, 20 November 2018. It must be emphasised that, despite this being a laborious exercise to finalise, we are excited that we have complied with the Constitutional Court deadline.

The consultative process for the feeder zone determination was accommodative to everyone who participated. The MEC established a feeder zone task team, consisting of officials from GDE and external stakeholders representing Governing Body Associations (NASGB; FEDSAS and GBF); STATSSA; Equal Education; Premiers Office (Spatial Planning); GCRA and the Municipal Demarcation Board participated.

It must be noted that, about 2067 maps were finalised and published, however, about 334 schools contested their proposed feeder zones, and fortunately their concerns were addressed. We must emphasise that, the adjudicating process was in favour of 90 percent of schools that contested and recommended adjustments, which were implemented accordingly.

The remaining 10 percent schools unfortunately, misinterpreted their feeder zones, confusing the 30km application radius with the feeder zone determination which was not provided for in terms of the criteria for determining feeder zone. The confusion was swiftly resolved.

The Department shall consider the following principles, which emanate from the analysis of South African education policies when determining the most suitable policy options to implement in the delimiting of feeder zones:

• Community ownership of schools, which considers location of a school in a community and whether the school is subscribed to by learners from the community.
• The community embeddedness that encourages parental support from the community and promotes community ownership of the school.

Accessibility to schools should reduce learner stress and exposure to dangers of commuting. Travelling long distances to schools contribute to learner absenteeism. The lack of sleep because of learners leaving home at dawn, coupled with the strenuous effect of long commuting to school leads to mental and physical fatigue, which has a negative effect on learner concentration and contributes to poor learner performance.

Learner safety is key; learners should not be travelling a significant distance to or walk long distances to schools.

Quality of Education at Primary schools should be when more than 60 per cent of learners perform at Level 4 and above in Grade 6 on Literacy and Numeracy. Secondary school should be deemed to be providing quality education if its pass percentage in the National Senior Certificate examination is above 65 per cent, and it has produced more than 30% bachelor and diploma passes, combined.

To address Transformation issues, learners will have access to quality education and should be treated the same way and strive towards affording learners the same opportunities. To alleviate unnecessary costs and minimise travelling time to school, parent’s place of employment must be located close to learners’ schools.

Publication of feeder zones dictates that, schools will have to submit their admission policies to the HOD for ratification within 90 days. “Publication of these new feeder zones simply means that the Apartheid Spatial planning is defeated. Feeder zone determination play a significant role in ensuring that access to our schools is fair, transparent and conducted in an equitable manner. Our schools cannot justify, any form of discriminating against any learner. Our officials and stakeholders contributed immensely to the successful consultative process and we are excited that FEDSAS and Equal Education participated in the process” said MEC Panyaza Lesufi.

The following feeder zones documents are available on the department’s website, click documents, policies the 2018 folder for easy access:

• GDE policy delimitation of feeder zones for schools
• Provincial Notice Gazette
• Frequently asked questions
• Feeder Zones List of 2067 Public Ordinary Schools from all 15 Districts

A School Governing Body (SGB) which is not in agreement with the determined feeder zone may, within 30 days of the date of the determination contemplated above, lodge an appeal with the MEC objecting to the determination. It must be noted that, within 30 days of receiving the appeal, the MEC must consider the same and provide the SGB with a decision and reasons accordingly.

The appeals may be sent for attention to the Director Strategic Policy Management, details are as follows:

By Email: feederzoneappeals@gauteng.gov.za of

By hand: The Gauteng Department of Education, Directorate: Strategic Policy Management, Ms Phindi Dhlamini, 7th floor, 17 Simmonds Street, Johannesburg, 2000

It must be noted feeder zones are not determined for special schools and focus schools, the nature of these schools warrant that they be excluded from the feeder zone provisions because they cater for learners with special needs and special competencies respectively and communities may not therefore be able to adequately provide learners for the school to be utilised to maximum capacity.

For more information, contact the Gauteng Department of Education’s Spokesperson, Steve Mabona on 072 574 3860.

Issued by the Gauteng Department of Education

For media releases, speeches and news visit the Gauteng Provincial Government’s portal at www.gauteng.gov.za

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