Media Release
Minister of Education Donald Grant
Western Cape

13 January, 2014

Back to school – WCED prepared and ready for 2014 school year.

Statements by Minister Donald Grant, Minister of Education, Western Cape

On Wednesday, over 950 000 learners will be donning their school uniforms to begin the 2014 school year.

The Western Cape Education Department is prepared and ready to welcome these learners into our schools.

I should especially like to extend a warm welcome to all the new learners and parents who will be joining our Western Cape schools.

This is an exciting and sometimes emotional time for both the children and their parents. While many of these new Grade 1 learners have been at ‘school’ before in either ECD centres or in Grade R – their entry into “big school” can be pretty daunting.

I am sure they will be all warmly received by their new school friends and their educators and I hope to see them all ending their school career in 2025 with a quality education.

This year, the WCED will continue to focus on the protection of teaching and learning time and will be prioritizing the Foundation Phase of learning in our schools – augmenting the literacy and numeracy strategy in our schools – which includes extensive testing, teacher training, the mobilisation of parents and the distribution of additional resources and reading materials.

Other key priority areas this year include the roll-out of the CAPS curriculum in Grades 7-9 and 12, the training of educators and school leadership teams and the building of new and replacement schools.

There are 4 new schools and 17 replacement schools that are under construction this year.

A further 11 new schools and 16 replacement schools are currently in the planning stages.

There are 3 schools that were replaced with new school buildings during the course of 2013 that will be ready for the start of the 2014 school year. These are, Fairview PS, Kathleen Murray PS and Plantation Road PS.

In terms of preparedness for Wednesday, so far, our readiness plans have been a success:

• All textbooks in Grade 7-9 and Grade 12, in line with the final rollout of CAPS, have been delivered. Suppliers delivered almost all of the other books ordered before the end of 2013, and will deliver the remainder before school starts next week.

• All schools have received workbooks for Grades 1 – 6. A few reported shortages are currently being dealt with by the DBE.

• Arrangements for desks and chairs for learners in 2014 have been made.

• Teacher appointments have been finalised and timetables were in place by the time schools close on 6 December.

Officials are visiting schools today to check for other last-minute tasks that need to be completed.

The WCED has asked all school principals to ensure that their school grounds and classrooms are clean and free of litter.

The WCED will be on stand-by to provide assistance at schools where there are late registrations.

While we believe that more than 99% of the children in the Western Cape have been enrolled, we do expect that a small percentage of learners will enrol late.

This is either because their parents have relocated to the Province during the festive season, or their parents have neglected their responsibility to enrol their children on time.

The WCED has officials who are working full-time with schools and parents to place late comers.

Parents can also phone our Call Centre which will put them in touch with the relevant district officials (0861-92-33-22).

The department has introduced a new online system that schools are using to report available places and that officials are using them to place learners.

The system is making it easier for us to place learners in different circuits, as required.

I do appeal to these parents to exercise patience as we try to assist them. In many cases, parents have enrolled their children at two or more schools, therefore we expect places to become available as schools start to finalise their enrolment numbers.

We therefore ask that parents work with us during this period.

We will ensure that all learners will be placed at a school.

If we all work together we can achieve quality results.

Let the 2014 school year begin!

Media enquiries:
Bronagh Casey
Spokesperson for the Minister of Education, Donald Grant
Western Cape Education Department
Tel: 021 467 2377
Fax: 072 425 3616