Cape Town mother in nightmare ordeal over WCED school placement process

A Cape Town mother has described her online application for Grade 8 as a nightmare, as her son was not accepted into any of the schools he applied to for the 2025 academic year. 

The 41-year-old mother of two from Kuilsriver said she applied via the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) portal on the day online admissions opened in May 2024.

“I made sure I was online on the day to make sure I had no issues. I chose six schools for my son,” the mother who did not want to be named told IOL. 

In August 2024, she received a notification that her 13-year-old son was not accepted at any of the six schools due to over-subscription. 

“At that point, I started appealing. I appealed to three schools and sent e-mails. I also went to schools directly to ask to at least be placed on a waiting list. One school stated they had no waiting list due to the volume of applicants. Another school told me after a while it remains steadfast in its decision as there was an over-subscription,” the mother said. 

She also visited the WCED district offices for assistance, in Kuilsriver and Parow where she was told to conduct the appeals online. 

“Two of the appeals still declined us due to over-subscription. One of the appeals remains open,” she explained. 

She said the pressure of not hearing back from the WCED placed extreme stress on their family. 

“We sat in lines. Parents were all concerned about where their children were going. It’s very concerning. How does a school, for example, get 1,000 applications if they can only take 300? What happens to the 700 other children? This was exhausting to go back and forth. The Department of Education needs to step up its game,” the frustrated mother said. 

Not only did this add stress to the parents, but her 13-year-old son became more anxious by the day. 

“Every day he would ask 'Mom, have you heard anything yet?' At night, during prayers, he prayed for a school placement after all the rejection,” she said sadly. 

The family received notice of availability at a school, however, they turned it down as the school did not have the best reputation and felt it would not be in his best interest to attend. 

“I did not think my child would thrive in this school. There are talks about violence and more at this school. He was terrified of the idea of what was happening at the school and I told my husband we cannot force him,” she said. 

As time grew closer for the 2025 academic school year to begin the family grew anxious as their son still had no school. 

“We had to make the last-minute financial decision to pay all the money to send our son to a private school. What is so concerning is how the Department has the numbers for children going to Grade 8 yet have this problem. We are fortunate to be able to give this to our son, however, what about those families who are not?” she questioned. 

In response to IOL, the WCED’s Bronagh Hammond said it was important to note the learner is not unplaced, the parent was offered a place at school but does not which to accept it. 

“Unfortunately, many of our schools receive a far greater number of applications than it has places to accommodate new learners. For example, De Kuilen High School received over 2,100 applications for Grade 8, for approximately 430 places.” 

“If a parent applies only to schools that have very high number of admissions applications, it is possible that a parent might not receive an offer of admission from any of these schools due to schools being oversubscribed. In this instance, the district office will seek alternative placement for the learner,” Hammond said. 

She said the department has undertaken expansions of some of its schools with a high demand by adding additional classrooms. The WCED is also building new schools in areas where demand for placement is hight to relieve admission pressure on schools. 

“Our district offices will continue working to place every learner for whom an application is received. We understand that this is a stressful and anxious period for parents who are waiting for a place, and we are asking parents to work with us as we try to accommodate their children as soon as possible,” Hammond said. 

“Parents can assist by ensuring that they let the district office know if their contact details change, as we are facing challenges reaching parents in some cases where is place has become available for their child.”

According to the WCED, as of January 14, 2025, placement is in progress for 2,321 Grade 8 learners. This included extremely late applications currently being made by parents after January 1, 2025, for the current school year.

Over 114,000 parents applied for Grades 1 or 8 while the online system was open.

Extremely late applications were received for over 300 Grade 1 and 8 learners for the current school year since the start of 2025. 

“It is important to remember that it is not the online system that allocates learners to schools. Each school receives the applications made to the school by parents on the online system, and the school decides whether to offer a place to a learner,” Hammond explained.

robin.francke@iol.co.za

IOL