South Africans still have faith in public education system - Lesufi

26 April 2016

Johannesburg – South Africans still have faith in the public education system, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said on Tuesday.

The province's education department launched its online application system last week, and reported that Pretoria Boys High School had received the highest number of applications, with 1 821.

"Remember this is a high school. We are talking about an average of four classrooms and if four classrooms take 45 learners, we are speaking about 180, [in terms of] the learners that we need. But for us to receive 1 821 is a vote of confidence in public education," said Lesufi.

"So we can challenge private education that there are still people that have confidence that public education can provide the quality of education that you need," he added.

It was now up to the school's administration to decide whether it would expand to accommodate the high volumes of learners who wanted to attend school there.

'Future township school'

Lesufi said this would make planning easier for schools.

Since the system was launched eight days ago, more than 370 000 parents had successfully registered, an average of 53 000 applications a day, Lesufi said.

Meanwhile, on May 9, the department planned to launch what it labelled a "future township school", explaining that it would be a prototype of the type of school it envisioned for all Gauteng township schools.

The school would be unveiled in Emdeni, Soweto, on the premises of Fontanus Comprehensive School, which is no longer in operation.

Lesufi said this was the first of 20 schools the department planned to open.

The department also planned to open an aviation school in Kempton Park, which would specialise in aviation careers.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.