Legal action over unplaced learners in Western Cape

Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) have hauled the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to court over the immediate placement of all unplaced learners in the province, calling on the court to declare its “failure to timeously place late applicant learners in schools” unconstitutional.

This comes after the organisations said it had been “flooded” with queries from parents seeking support for the placement of their children in the Western Cape, particularly in the Metro East Education District.

The court application brought by EE and the EELC is divided into two parts, part A being urgent and part B semi-urgent.

In part A of the application, they are seeking an order for the placement of all out-of-school late applicant learners in the Western Cape, as well as for remedial and support plans for these learners.

They also want the head of department to produce an investigative report on “why the WCED has failed to place these learners”.

Part B of the application asks the court to declare the WCED’s “failure to timeously place late applicant learners in schools unconstitutional”, and set aside its admission policy, among others.

“EE and the EELC have attempted to engage the department by writing letters, attending meetings, protesting, handing over memorandums and highlighting key recommendations through traditional and social media.

However, all of these attempts have failed to result in significant change or an agreement by the department to plan better. Therefore, parents and caregivers along with EE and the EELC, have no other choice but to approach the courts to secure the placement of the many learners who, more than two weeks into the second school term, are still at home without access to education.

“According to the WCED, parents and caregivers who apply after the month-long online application period in the preceding year of placement are classified as late applicants – making up the bulk of the learners who remain unplaced after the school year starts.

However, there is no clear policy or plan to address the challenges brought about by this, resulting in learners being out of the classroom for an unreasonable and unacceptable long period of time,” the organisations said in a joint statement.

They said parents also highlighted the “inaccessibility” of the online system.

“The majority of learners who continue to be affected by non-placement are black children from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Non-access to education for these learners worsens the inequality in the Western Cape. Applying late does not mean that learners should lose their right to access education,” said EE and EELC.

Approached for comment, Western Cape Education MEC David Maynier said they were opposing the matter and were preparing their answering papers, hence “it would not be appropriate to comment on the content at this stage”.

He added: “By the time schools closed last year, we had already placed 99.4% of our applicants for 2024. We then received nearly 4 000 extremely late applications after January 1, 2024, and placed those learners.”

Cape Times