Provincial education departments on Tuesday reported readiness for the arrival of millions of pupils at the start of the 2007 school year on Wednesday.
Schools will reopen in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West and Free State.
”The Gauteng department of education is ready to roll out the 2007 academic calendar,” education provincial minister Angie Motshekga said in a statement on Tuesday.
Preliminary figures indicate that Gauteng pupils will increase by more than 12%, with more than 2,6-million pupils at the province’s schools.
Most pupils registered last year, Motshekga said.
About 36 000 registered late but the department was able to accommodate some of them. Four thousand remaining pupils, and those who go to schools on Wednesday to seek admission, will be found places soon, Motshekga said.
Stationery has been supplied to schools and department officials will be deployed to deal with unforeseen problems.
Motshekga said the influx of pupils will be mostly felt in Tshwane, southern Johannesburg and the East Rand.
”Plans have been made to provide relief to extremely overcrowded schools through the provision of mobile classrooms during the first term.”
Eleven new schools have also been completed throughout the province.
The Mpumalanga education department said it wants teaching to start on the first day of school.
”We want schools to break away from the culture of letting the pupils clean the schools and school grounds on the first day,” spokesperson Hlahla Ngwenya said.
Department officials recently visited schools in Delmas and Davel to ensure buildings and grounds are clean and hygienic.
”We don’t want any school day to be wasted.”
Stationery was delivered to schools last year, Ngwenya said.
Registration of new pupils was also encouraged last year but late-comers will be accommodated outside normal school hours.
”Late registration should be minimal and will take place outside normal contact hours. We don’t want anything to disrupt teaching at the schools.”
Ngwenya could not give an exact figure of the number of pupils in the province.
He was also not sure how many schools there were, saying that the number had changed recently due to redemarcation of municipal areas.
The North West education department anticipates about 850 000 pupils from grade one to 12 at its 2 200 public schools on Wednesday.
”In a nutshell we are as ready as [can be] expected,” said spokesperson Charles Raseala. ”The issue of teaching and learning material delivery was 99% done by December last year.”
Schools with no storage facilities for materials were addressed this week, he said.
Some, mostly relocating, pupils still seek admissions but a 2007 admission campaign held last year received a good response from parents.
”We are therefore not expecting a commotion tomorrow [Wednesday].”
A problem with late delivery of grade 11 top-up material from publishers at some schools should be rectified by the end of January. Suppliers have also not made deadlines for chairs and desks for two newly established schools at Setlakgobe village near Mafikeng, he said.
Raseala said the department is confident that no huge problems will be experienced.
”There might be one or two problems here and there but they are not major issues and we believe we should be able to handle them.”
Free State education provincial minister Ouma Tsopo said her department will visit districts over the next five days to evaluate the province’s school readiness.
The department of education in Limpopo could not be immediately reached for comment. — Sapa