Department of Education Extranet

Update on the offer for placements-2021 learner admissions

The Northern Cape Department of Education is making steady progress in all Districts to finalise the offer for placements to all parents. At this stage, the Provincial statistics indicate that 70% of all placement offers have been generated and issued to parents. 

However, the rate at which parents accept or decline the placement offers are very low and currently stands at 64%. This could be due to a number of reasons that we have cited which include amongst other that parents lost their phones or gadgets, changed their cellphone numbers or don't have internet connectivity. Therefore the Department has opened walk-in centres in all Districts as from Wednesday, the 6th of January 2021 to assist parents to finalise their admission placement. 

All parents will receive their offers for placement by tomorrow Friday, 8 January 2021. It remains the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian to either accept or decline the placement offer within 7 days. Failure to do so within the specified 7 days, will result in the Department placing the child. 

Parents who opt to decline the offer for placement will lose their place and will have to accept where there's available space. A parent who is dissatisfied with the decision of the District Director, may appeal to the Office of the MEC within 7 days. The parents will have to complete an Appeal form and submit it electronically to the Office of the MEC. The Department created a Google form for parents, which can be completed from the comfort of your home, cellphone or device. Parents should use the following link: tiny.cc/appeal2021, to complete their appeal. This will ensure that we adhere to the COVID-19 regulations and prevent parents from queuing at District offices and Walk-in Centres. 

The bulk of the admission applications were recorded in the Frances Baard District, amounting to 12 830 applications of which 3 042 are for middle grades ( Grade 2-6 and Grade 9-11). A total of 30,6% of middle Grade applications were already processed and we will only be finalised if school spaces for those Grades exist or become available. We have clearly indicated from the onset that school hopping won't be allowed and will only be considered if school spaces exist for the middle grades. 

Another concern for the Department is the number of applications we received for Grade R, specifically in Frances Baard District. There are a total of 9 788 applications for the entry grades (Grade R, 1 and 8) which constitutes 76,3% of the total (12 830) admission applications for the Frances Baard District. 

We have received a total of  4 700 admission applications for Grade R in the Frances Baard District. Important to note is that we only have school spaces for 1 421 Grade R learners in our public schools in the District. Unfortunately 3 279 learners will have to make use of ECD Community Based Centres in and around Kimberley. 

So far, we are on track for the smooth start of the school academic year and we urge parents to work with us to finalise all placement before Wednesday, 27 January 2021. We further remind parents that we find ourselves in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and we must adhere to the regulations and guidelines when visiting our walk-in centres or District offices. Parents should try as far as possible to finalise their placement offer from their home before visiting the walk-in centres. This will assist the Department to curb the spread of the Coronavirus and remain safe at all times. 

End.