The Department of Basic Education (DBE) briefed the Parliamentary Committee on Basic Education on its state of readiness for the school year earlier this week.
Nearly 2.5 million new learners have been placed in schools, up from almost 2.4 million in November 2024. This represents a placement rate of 99.2%, with only 0.8% of learners still awaiting placement.
While the percentage of unplaced learners is less than 1%, it translates to thousands of unplaced learners facing uncertainty over where they will be attending school.
A shocking revelation of the meeting was that when the 2025 school year commenced 2025, 28,371 were not yet placed in a school.
The vast majority of the unplaced learners were in entry grades. There were 6,676 unplaced Grade R learners, 4,455 unplaced Grade 1 learners and 10,211 unplaced Grade 8 learners.
The DBE explained that schools continue to receive placement requests, often due to socio-economic factors such as new job offers in different provinces requiring the need for families to semi-migrate while family changes like divorce or bereavement, and general relocations also contributed.
Some parents are refusing placements at allocated schools, instead demanding placements at their preferred schools.
Where Are Most Of The Unplaced Learners?
The province with the highest number of unplaced learners was the Western Cape where 7,280 did not have a classroom to go to on the first day of school. This was made up of 594 Grade 1 learners and 2,331 Grade 8 learners.
Importantly, 4,355 of these learners needed to be placed in Grade R. Grade R enrollment is compulsory under the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act which President Ramaphosa said will be implemented fully in 2025.
Gauteng (4,573 unplaced learners) Mpumalanga (3,414 unplaced learners) and the Free State (2,282 placed learners) also had a high number of learners who were unplaced.
Committee member Mandla Shikwambana questioned whether the delayed implementation of the BELA Bill caused the admissions backlog in South Africa. Several provincial education departments had not placed all school learners in their respective provinces as the 2025 school year commenced.
Minister Gwarube assured committee members that the BELA Act will be implemented explaining that it is impossible for a Minister not to implement an Act that has been enacted into law.
As we stand, the BELA Act is fully implementable and is being implemented. As a department, we have had workshops with officials to ensure they are abreast with the Act.
