The Western Cape Education Department will begin registering a group of Wallacedene children.
|||The Western Cape Education Department will on Monday begin registering a group of Wallacedene children, some of whom have missed out on months of school or who have never been to school at all.
This comes after the Cape Argus last week reported claims by several parents that the schools in their areas had told them they were too full to accommodate their children, leaving parents with no option but to keep the youngsters at home.
Residents also said the department had done nothing to assist them.
More children not attending formal schools were also being taught at resident Nora Tafafene’s home.
Since Friday, the department has determined that 69 children of school-going age were affected. The department said it became aware of the extent of the problem on June 1.
The department claimed to have asked community leaders on June 1 for a list of the affected children, but this was denied by community leaders.
According to the department, there are three primary schools in Wallacedene, and all of them are full.
Department spokesman Paddy Attwell said the list of affected children was provided on Thursday.
“There are 83 names on the list. Of these, 53 are of schoolgoing age and 30 should be attending preschool. Officials hope to place the children of schoolgoing age in schools by early (this) week,” he said, adding that the children should be in classes between grades 1 and 7. They would then try and place the pre-school children.
He said officials would try to obtain previous school reports where possible, and would assess each child along with the school to determine the most appropriate support.
“We will tailor the support to meet the needs of each child. We first have to establish the kind of support required,” Attwell said.
On Friday, Education MEC Donald Grant visited Tafafene, who has been schooling 16 children of schoolgoing age at her home. She told him some of the children had never been to school.
She told him that some of the parents didn’t have IDs or birth certificates for their children.
Grant said there was nothing stopping the department from taking the children affected by this problem.
“The important thing is that we know who they are and where they belong in the system. The second thing that has to happen is that every citizen needs to have an ID document,” he said.
Grant and Tafafene said parents also had to take responsibility for their children.
Grant indicated he would also speak to Social Development MEC Albert Fritz to get the assistance of one of his officials.
ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za
Cape Argus