Gauteng Department of Education changed the rules and demarcation for applying for schools (grade 1 and grade 8) without communication to parents. At least, myself and many people here didn't know about the changes until it was too late. In the confusion, there are kids that have not been placed in any school for 2023, while others have been placed in schools they didn't apply for, which is inconvenient for parents.
Today some parents are trying to fix this, as GDE told us they would be open today. We've been shunted from pillar to post. From Mayersdal to Germiston to Alberton. I don't know how many are in this particular Centre, but I could easily put it at 10,000.
As you can imagine, parking is a problem for such a large frustrated crowd, so people are parking wherever possible. However, the actual roads are open, and traffic can flow, but there are those that are parked on the oncoming side of the traffic.
Now there are police issuing tickets because they have just been given a directive to do so. Imagine as a frustrated parent that is aware that the school year starts in less than 48hrs and you walk out to find a ticket because of a situation you didn't create.
If the changes in the rules were communicated properly and on time this problem would be halved. Anyway, for the benefit of those that are still coming herewith the important changes I've learnt in the past 6 wks, these are in the order of importance:
1. Priority will be given to a child that applied to a school within the demarcation known to DGE, firstly by residence and secondly by work address of the parent.
2. A child will be admitted to a feeder school of their primary school, also appropriated by the demarcation set out by GDE.
3. A child will be allocated a school within 30km of their residence if 1 and 2 are not met arbitrarily by GDE without consultation with the parent.
4. Children can only cross-province lines if 1,2,3, and 4 have failed. By this time, schools in other provinces could be full already.
By: Ngoato Thamae