Bradley is close to the end of his primary school career, so the hunt for high schools is high on our agenda. The private school that the boys go to only goes to grade 7, so staying there is impossible.
Last year, I kind of kept track of friends that were queuing at various schools in our area, but didn’t take too much notice of it… it seemed very far away. We were also gung-ho about the boys staying in private schools, and we’ve had our eye on one in particular and knew it wouldn’t be a problem to get him in.
However, things have changed in the last year. The private school we had our eye on, seemingly won’t have space for Connor! So then we start with the problem all over again. Not to mention the cost… so, we’ve been looking at putting them in good government schools for their high school careers.
The problem is that there aren’t many of them, and every person in northern Johannesburg has got a similar problem to us, and needs to get their kids educated. Funny that! In fact, there are only 2 schools close to us that are worth trying. The feeder school he’s meant to go to is downright awful, and there’s no way I’m contemplating that.
If you don’t live close by, this notion of queueing to get the kids onto the list seems absurd, but let me explain. First, before the examples, you need to understand that the applications were only accepted today, Tuesday… some schools started taking in applications after midnight, but most opened at 6am.
1. We live close to a good primary school. The queues with parents in deck chairs camping out started on Monday morning. By last night, the queue was down the road. There were cars everywhere!
2. A friend was queuing at the school we want the boys to get into. Last year they started queuing the day before, to get her oldest son in. This year, they drove past the school on Sunday, saw the queue that had already started forming, and joined it and camped until this morning. 2 full days before applications were accepted!! The school accepts 240 odd, last year they received 3000 applications. Seriously, what hope is there?
3. Another friend queued for over 40 hours to get their application in at another school in the north! They were 170 on the list.
4. Yet another friend started queueing yesterday morning… she was number 154 in the queue.
That’s 2 days off work to place an application at one school. You get one chance. One chance at only one school.
Where are all the other kids educated?! The ones whose parents cannot take 2 days off work to queue?! The kids whose applications were too low on the list… because they sure as hell aren’t on another list if you’ve been queueing for 2 days!
It’s a crazy system. All because there has been absolutely no planning on the part of the local government. There haven’t been new schools built in years!
In fact, there’s a school that assumedly is supposed to be built in Radiokop. They cleared the ground last year. And then nothing. According to word on the street, they didn’t get proper planning permission, so they have had to stop! How crazy is that?
So anyway, back to us… guess I don’t have a choice. I’m going to have to sell my soul to get them through high school at a private school. Guess no-one said parenting was easy. I suppose we’ll only have another 5 years then to get through. At least university fees are much lower than private schooling! We’ll have a break then.
Edited to add this cartoon found on Facebook
Holy moly !!!!!
I know…. D queued for 4.5 hours, and we’re number A25 and A26 on the list. The person who was first had been there from 3:30 (now that’s crazy but Louisa did the same!). We happened to have parents’ evening tonight and the teacher said it really is getting worse every year.
But really, it’s going to have to change at some point.
PS 5 years is a long time!
I honestly think it’s better that you keep him in a private school anyway. Imagine how full the classes in those government schools are…
It seems that the schools with the longest queues are the ones with the small class sizes… which is why there is such a clamor for space.
There is actually not much difference in terms of how many kids per class I believe which is WHY there is such a palaver to get into these schools! My one colleague pays exorbitant private fees for her daughter who has 26 kids in her class (grade 2) and my boss’es son goes to a public school with an excellent reputation and there are 25 kids in his son’s class (grade 1)
So… I am prepping myself to camp outside the local primary school I am sure you are referring to to get Kade in, in 2 years time!
xxx
I queued for 5 hours yesterday and am number A139 on the list. The school accepts 200 new girls per year, so the classes are bigger than at private schools but not overcrowded. This was for our 2nd choice school, which is the one closest to our home. We applied to a school in another province early in March and I received a letter of acceptance from them yesterday. We will most likely send Megan there to board…
Boarding school is not an option for him.
Although saying that, another FB friend said this morning that Pretoria Girls only accepts 20 boarders a year! I thought they had more.
I know! TheBoyf’s sister had to queue this year. She only got onto the B list for her 1st choice school (where she queued) and is 30th on the A waiting list at her 2nd choice. Apparently they stay open for applications till the 26th but I also wonder … where do all the kids who don’t get in and can’t afford private school end up??
It is total madness! Yet another reason we’re moving to Cape Town!
Varsity is also starting to worry me. I enrolled this year and I can see the current varsity structure is just not equipped to deal with the amount of students there is. Which means private varsity. eeeek…..
Ouch, now that’s going to be expensive!
It is insane…but we should be ‘used’ to it by now, zero planning in 20 years.
Maybe a good time to start a school? Those who did a few years back, are not only educating our kids now, but also coining it (bleeding us dry) cause they know the predicament we face as parents.
Its crazy! Our school (primary) is not even having an open day and have 6 grade 1places for next year and a few more for grade R. So for primary school you have to get in in RR! I did hear this morning that the high school just a block away form us give our school preference (makes sense – a block apart and same name shared) so I am feeling a tad better for highschool. Plus it is one of the country’s best high schools. I guess a little plus being Afrikaans
I’m wishing I’d insisted on the kids being more fluent in Afrikaans… there are fantastic Afrikaans schools around.
That’s what I forgot to rant about… Randpark High came and presented their benefits to the kids a few weeks ago, I cannot understand why if they have a queue 2 days long! What’s the point of trying to get more kids excited about the school if you know there’s no space?
We have made the decision, that the boys won’t be educated in SA. Which is sad because there are so many OTHER opportunities for them that they don’t get in Uganda. Our family is there, SA is a beautiful country and has so much potential but I am losing faith in it. After reading this report from the DA http://www.da.org.za/2015/04/wef-ranks-sa-maths-and-science-education-last-in-the-world/ (and checking the figures on the original WEF report) I’m REALLY not keen on sending them whether they go to a private or government boarding school. Every six months when I’m back in SA I see more unhappy people with an even more crumbling infrastructure around them.
It’s a tough one Jenty. Honestly, for a number of reasons, we’ve decided on private school for our girls too and landed up putting Ava into a private school in our area that wasn’t popular until 2 years ago when Curro bought then. So getting her in was easy. But now they’ve become so freaking popular that we’re battling to get Hannah in there too!
And you’re right, there are great Afrikaans schools in the area, but the English ones are not great! It’s a never ending worry.
Why is it such a struggle to place in an application..
You have thought of sending your son to a government school, its not a bad idea as long as you as a parent will monitor his school work and performance. I am a government school alumnus.
This is to get him into a government school! I really don’t want to pay for private schooling, but it looks like we have little choice
Wow.. Lets hope things work out on your side.
Good luck
I did this LAST year to get my daughter into Grd 1. Queued from 3:00am – doors opened at 7:00am, and managed to be #40 on the A List. Next year we will do it again for our second daughter – having a sibling already in the school is NO GUARANTEE that your second will get in.
I will say (with NO shame I might add) that when I handed in her application, I told the administrator that we would be paying the school fees for the year up front. She put a BIG tick on the application and we did get in.
I still think that there should be some system for registering online. I came up with an idea for a website that would incorporate all schools and the feeder zones, and then forms which could be auto-generated for each school that you apply to. Once its submitted with all the documentation, you get a receipt and a notification of whether you’re A list or B list depending on where you live and then if you are accepted you get notified. if you don’t have access to internet, you can go to the school and do the application online there or any internet cafe. Would save SO much time and agony of having to queue for days. I mean seriously… do the schools open up a bathroom?
There is a new website, it was launched this morning, here are the details:
http://www.htxt.co.za/2015/04/22/gauteng-2016-school-registration-site-for-parents-goes-live/
However!! I tried to register and it went in a loop, also, it looks like a standard Sharepoint template and not all the pages have content, the links don’t work, and even the contact details are incorrect (still says Microsoft)!