Education landscape changes with announcement of feeder zones
In 2016, the Constitutional Court directed the MEC for Education in Gauteng to determine feeder zones for public schools in Gauteng province in the manner required by regulation 4(1) of the Admission of Learners to Public Schools within 12 months from the date of the judgment.
The Gauteng Department of Education has announced the Constitutional Court has published a Government Gazette to determine feeder zones of all Gauteng schools.
MEC Panyaza Lesufi made the announcement during a press briefing.
After assessing the complexity of the task of determining feeder zones, it was clear that the time allocated by the Constitutional Court was not sufficient and as such the department applied for an 18-months extension which was granted, thus giving the department a deadline, November 20.
“It must be emphasised that, despite this being a laborious exercise to finalise, we are excited that we have complied with the Constitutional Court deadline.
“The consulting process for the feeder zone determination was accommodating to everyone who participated.
“The MEC established a feeder zone task team, consisting of officials from GDE and external stakeholders,” spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Education, Steve Mabona said.
“It must be noted that about 2 067 maps were finalised and published, but about 334 schools contested their proposed feeder zones and fortunately their concerns were addressed.
“We must emphasise that the adjudicating process was in favour of 90 per cent of schools that contested and recommended adjustments, which were implemented accordingly.
“The remaining 10 per cent of schools, unfortunately, misinterpreted their feeder zones, confusing the 30km application radius with the feeder zone determination which was not provided for in terms of the criteria for determining feeder zone.
“The confusion was swiftly resolved.”
According to Mabona, the department shall consider the following principles which emanate from the analysis of South African education policies when determining the most suitable policy options to implement in the delimiting of feeder zones:
• Community ownership of schools, which considers the location of a school in a community and whether the school is subscribed to by learners from the community.
• The community embeddedness that encourages parental support from the community and promotes community ownership of the school.
“Accessibility to schools should reduce learner stress and exposure to dangers of commuting. Travelling long distances to schools contribute to learner absenteeism.”
“The lack of sleep because of learners leaving home at dawn, coupled with the strenuous effect of long commuting to school, leads to mental and physical fatigue which has a negative effect on learner concentration and contributes to poor learner performance.”
Mabona said. He said the learner’s safety is key.
“Learners should not be travelling a significant distance to schools.
He said the quality of education at primary schools should be when more than 60 per cent of learners perform at level four and above in Grade Six regarding literacy and numeracy.
Secondary school should be deemed to provide quality education if its pass percentage in the National Senior Certificate examination is above 65 per cent, and it has produced more than 30 per cent bachelor and diploma passes, combined.
A school governing body (SGB), which is not in agreement with the determined feeder zone, may, within 30 days of the date of the determination contemplated above, lodge an appeal with the MEC objecting to the determination.
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