Late for school in 2019?
The end of May marked the closing of the applications for children to be accepted at a public school for the 2019 academic year.
POLOKWANE – Unfortunately, not all parents adhered to the closing date to register their children and public schools are still getting applications for the coming year.
Schools in the city spoke to BONUS, on condition of anonymity, about the matter and said they still get parents who want forms to apply for space for their children. As most schools no longer give out these application forms, it has led to disputes and fights in some cases.
Other schools, however, said they will still continue to take in learners as they had not yet met their admission requirement limit, so parents can still manage to secure a space for their kids after the cut-off date given by the Department of Education.
Annually problems with learners not getting a place at the school of their choice causes confrontation between the Department of Education and parents. At the beginning of the 2018 academic year, many parents were still fighting for a school of their choice two months into the start of the academic year. Director Mothemane of the department told BONUS many of the issues which led to these confrontations was because the parents did not want their children to attend schools in the areas where they stay because they felt the schools were not capable of educating their children the way they would like.
This led to confrontation as most of the schools the parents preferred were already full to capacity.
Spokesperson for the Department of Education, Sam Makondo, said the only hope parents who have not applied for schools yet is to write to the Limpopo district offices and submit their applications to see if there will be space available.
He said parents will need to supply their reasons for not making the deadline along with the needed documentation for the application.
These include:
• Birth certificate or acceptable proof of birth.
• Immunisation card.
• Transfer card.
• Last report card.
Non-South African citizens need to submit:
• Study or work permit.
• Temporary or permanent residence permit from the South African Department of Home Affairs.
• Evidence to show there is application for permission to stay in South Africa.
The following may not be used as a pre-condition for admission of learners:
• Payment of a registration fee or admission fee.
• Administering of a test before the child is admitted.
• Payment of some school fees straight away.
• Signing of an undertaking that you will pay the school fees.
