Western Cape school admissions policy fails the test

THE Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has been ordered to produce a comprehensive management plan for late, extremely late and transfer applications within six months, after a court found its admissions policy violates the Constitution.

The judgment penned by Western Cape High Court Judge Babalwa Pearl Mantame, stated: "It is declared that Clause 13 of the WCED Admission Policy, to the extent that it unfairly discriminates against late applicants on the basis of race, poverty level, place of birth, and social origin, and thereby constitutes a violation of sections 9(1) and 9(3) of the Constitution, is set aside."

Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), had instituted legal action against the department, saying it has been a reality for some children from disadvantaged communities in the province to have no access to school at the beginning of each school year.  The organisations said this has been happening for more than ten years. 

The the lack of available school places is particularly prevalent in the WCED’s Metro East Education district, which is a low-income district largely dominated by disadvantaged communities such as Khayelitsha and Kraaifontein, said the organisations. 

In welcoming this week’s court outcome, the organisations said  that pupils from poor and working-class backgrounds had long faced systemic barriers to accessing education in the Western Cape due to the provincial government’s “exclusionary, non-pro-poor approach”.

“The court found that the WCED’s admissions crisis is not incidental but entrenched and systemic, a reality the WCED has ignored despite years of legal advocacy and community mobilisation demanding change. In its judgment, the court encouraged the WCED to collaborate with EE and the EELC to resolve learner admission challenges in the Western Cape. We welcome this call and stand ready to work constructively and meaningfully alongside the WCED. Our hope is that this is a call the WCED will finally step up to in order to ensure seamless processes for accessing education that serve all learners in the Western Cape.”  

The court found that the issue was systemic and one that the WCED did not "prioritise and resolve”. 

The WCED denied this, arguing that its admission policy dealt adequately with late applications and extremely late applications, as well as the procedure to be followed.

Kerry Mauchiline, spokesperson to Education MEC, David Maynier said they were taking legal advice on the judgment and considering the potential for appeal. 

“We note the judgment, and note that it was not unanimous. The dissenting judgement states that the main judgement is “flawed” and that the Admissions Policy “does not discriminate, let alone unfairly so, on the basis of race, poverty, place of birth and social origin”. We have made extensive support available to parents for extremely late applications to communicate essential information, and to assist parents in applying for places in schools. We specifically target our infrastructure investments to areas where increased demand is predicted, and do everything we can to place extremely late applicants as quickly as possible, despite these applications arriving over eight  months late,” she said.

Cape Times