1. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) makes provision for transporting learners who live 5 kilometres or more from their nearest appropriate ordinary public school. Learners who have no access to public transport in rural and outlying areas are prioritized. The total number of learners transported is dependent on the WCED learner transport budget available for ordinary public schools.

2. To improve the administration of learner transport schemes, the WCED will be introducing an automated system to verify the number of learners transported by the WCED’s learner transport schemes. The verification will be conducted quarterly and conforms to audit requirements.

3. The automated system involves indicating on the Central Education Management Information System (CEMIS) or Integrated School Administration Management System (i-SAMS) which Grades R to 12 learners are currently making use of learner transport funded by the WCED. This includes schools where the function of procuring learner transport has been devolved to the school and where funds to administer the service are transferred to the school by the WCED.

4. Schools are required to access the CEMIS or i- SAMS between 6 and 19 June 2012, and to follow the instructions in the online procedure manual on capturing the route number and description, and indicating which learners are currently being transported. To access the online manual on the CEMIS or i-SAMS, schools must do the following:

For CEMIS schools:

  • Access the CEMIS.
  • Go to the menu page.
  • Point to the "Administration" heading. ("Learner Transport Scheme" will appear in the list).
  • Point to the "Learner Transport Scheme" option. ("LTS guide" will appear in the list.)
  • Click on "LTS guide".

For i-SAMS schools:
5. Principals must ensure that only learners who qualify in terms of the existing learner transport policy of the WCED (Circular 32 of 2010) are indicated.

6. Where schools have more than one route, care must be taken to ensure that the learners are allocated to the correct route and that the route descriptions are correctly recorded. The route description includes only the first pick-up point.

7. The inclusion of additional learners is subject to WCED approval in the following instances:
7.1 Where learners who have not previously been authorized are added during the automation process
7.2 Where the maximum number of learners, as per the existing contract, is exceeded

8. Capturing of the learner transport details must be completed by Tuesday, 19 June 2012.

9. It is compulsory for all schools with learner transport schemes funded by the WCED to complete the required information on the CEMIS or i-SAMS.

10. Only learners who are certified by schools in the automation process and consequently authorized by the WCED may benefit from the WCED’s learner transport schemes from the beginning of the 3rd school quarter of 2012. Schools and education district offices will be able to view the approved learners on the CEMIS or i-SAMS once approval has been granted.

11. Schools that have already captured their learner transport details on CEMIS or i-SAMS are expected to use the contents of this circular and the updated online manual to ensure that details were correctly captured.

12. The school principal is required to sign off the learner transport details on CEMIS or i-SAMS.

13. The following persons may be contacted for assistance with the capturing of learner transport details on CEMIS or i-SAMS:

  Dion Seekoei
Rhonell De Vries
Toka Mokhoane
Tanya de Villiers		 tel. 021 467 2143
tel. 021 467 2136
tel. 021 467 2356
tel. 021 467 9244


SIGNED: MM Harker
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: EDUCATION PLANNING
DATE: 2012:06:04