1. As you may be aware, a letter with reference no13/2/1 - 20061107-0007, was sent out via email from Head Office in the first term of 2008 requesting that schools indicate whether they wanted a classroom for Grade R and whether the school governing body (SGB) would be willing to build or procure a mobile classroom with funding provided by the WCED. The letter also contained an agreement that needed to be signed by SGBs for building the classrooms.
2. This letter was, unfortunately, sent out in error and also gave the incorrect response details, indicating that it came from the Directorate: Operational Support (previously Physical Resources Planning). The letter was, in fact, a copy of a previous letter sent out by the Directorate: Operational Support, but was not sent out by that directorate, nor from the Directorate: Institutional Management and Governance Planning (IMPG).
3. The aim of this IMGP Minute is to correct the misunderstandings that resulted from this error.
4. With regard to the provision of classrooms for Grade R, there was still some funding available in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) budget at the end of the 2007/08 financial year which ended on 31 March 2008 (first term of the year), and the rationale was that it could possibly be used to provide classrooms for Gr R. However, with the closing of the financial year on 31 March 2008, that funding reverted to Treasury and is no longer available. The WCED will therefore unfortunately not be able to provide classrooms to the schools that responded.
5. The funding available for Grade R classrooms in the 2008/09 financial year, starting 1 April 2008, has to be spent as per the prescripts issued by the national Department of Education and the priority indicators of the Western Cape Province. The district offices are currently nominating the schools to receive Grade R classrooms as per the required criteria. The selection of schools will be dealt with by the ECD component at Head Office and the selected schools will then be contacted for participation in the project. A project manager will be appointed to manage the rollout of the provision of Grade R classrooms and the name of this person will be communicated to schools in due course.
6. Schools that applied for Grade R classrooms in response to the erroneously sent letter will also be considered and, if they qualify as per the criteria, such schools will be included in the list of schools to receive Grade R classrooms in 2008/09.
7. Please note that all enquiries with regard to classrooms for Gr R must be addressed to the Directorate: IMGP at Head Office, for the attention of Ms Vanessa Minnaar at tel 021 467 2605, or per email at: vminnaar@pgwc.gov.za
8. The WCED apologises for the inconvenience and confusion caused by this unfortunate situation and thanks you for your co-operation and understanding.
9. It will be appreciated if you would bring the contents of this minute to the attention of all concerned.


SIGNED: M MAAS-OLSEN
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2008:05:27