Over a hundred thousand Grade 1s enter schools gates
According to the MEC the province is prepared for the 2014 academic year.
For some Grade 1 pupils in Krugersdorp the academic year kicked off one whole day ahead of the rest of the province on 14 January, but staff were prepared and as pupils entered the school gates it was all systems go.
According to Gauteng MEC for Education, Barbara Creecy schools elsewhere also should start the year on a good note as the province stands well prepared for the academic year and its challenges.
“We are confident that schools would be ready for teaching and learning starting on day one of the 2014 academic year.”
Creecy was speaking during a visit to Masiqhakaze Secondary in Tembisa, as part of a school cleaning campaign and the final leg of the school readiness campaign for 2014.
The MEC’s visit was one of over 2200 visits that district officials and senior managers would conduct to ensure that all public schools in Gauteng are ready for the 2014 academic year.
The visits focus on pupil admissions, textbook orders and deliveries, academic preparedness, school infrastructure, school safety and staffing for the new school year.
“To date, we can report that all Gauteng schools have ordered textbooks and we are monitoring delivery, which stands at 99 per cent in Gauteng. The department has a good track record of starting learning and teaching on the first day of the new school year,” says Creecy.
“As from the first school day principals would ensure that pupils have teachers, textbooks and timetables for every subject in every grade as an essential part of ensuring that we achieve this objective and learning and teaching starts on day one.”
The department received 131 000 applications for Grade 1 and 114 000 for Grade 8 for the 2014 intake.
The GDE also established admission centres in each of the 15 Districts and a Head Office admission centre to facilitate placement of pupils and speedily resolve admission queries and referrals.
“We urge parents who still have queries about the placement of their children to visit the district offices for assistance rather than going direct to the schools,” says Creecy.
“While we may not be able to accommodate all pupils in their school of preference, we will endeavour to fulfil our constitutional obligation to offer all Gauteng pupils a place in a school,” she concludes.
