- Western Cape schools will house 1.2 million learners this year which includes 107 000 Grade 1 learners.
- To that end, the Western Cape Education Department intends to build 9 new schools and 265 additional classrooms this year.
- Six of those schools will be complete by the end of January.
The 2025 school year started on Wednesday morning and in the Western Cape 107 000 Grade 1s went to school for the first time and 100 000 learners entered Grade 8.
Minister of Education in the Province, David Maynier, took time to welcome the new learners while also providing an update on admissions. The provincial education department is still placing 2 478 students ,but 118 914 learners were placed at schools as of 14th January, the day before schools opened.
The department has said it is working hard to place these learners, but asks parents to work with it to accommodate them as soon as possible.
Of note is mention from Maynier of the opening of new schools. The minister says his department is working to open 9 new schools and 265 additional classrooms this year. Of that figure, six schools and 180 classrooms are set to be opened this month.
“During my Adjustment Budget speech in December 2024, I said that we would need to make provision for these new schools, and new classrooms, to have teachers, and that we are considering all available options ahead of 2025 school year,” said Maynier.
“I said that we would fight for our teachers, and we continue to do so. Through further budget reprioritisation, we are in a position to make up to 477 new growth posts available to schools with a significant increase in learner numbers in 2025, and provide staff for the new schools we have completed,” the minister added.
These new posts will be allocated following the 10th day of the department’s SNAP survey to confirm how many learners are at schools around the province.
According to data from 2022, there are 1 452 public schools in the Western Cape. According to the department there are 1.2 million learners in the public school system which works out to around 826 learners per school on average or, put another way, 165 learners in each grade, on average.
That is a large number of students and highlights the need for more schools in the province, and the country at large. And that’s not even discussing the severe lack of university space for South Africans.
The minister notes that this push to place more educators in schools will have “further implications for our budget deficit”, but that it’s important that schools can accommodate the influx the learners entering school in 2025.
