For some there were tears, others were anxious, and for the rest, pure excitement, as hundreds of thousands of learners across South Africa sounded in the new school year.

For many, it signaled a step up from pre-school to the ‘big school’ and they braved their school’ halls for the first time Wednesday.

At times, it was hard to determine who was more emotional, the learners or the parents.

This is how one parent summed up the first day.

“I gave him a quick hug, told him that he will be fine and that we love him stacks. I then had to get out of there cause I could feel the tears coming. I cried driving home. I’m crying while I type this.

“Guys this first day of school thing is hard. For me. Luke is so completely fine. I’m a mess.”

Some parents were frantically completing admission forms, while others reassured their little ones as they take their first steps in their respective ‘long walks to freedom,’ to borrow the title from Nelson Mandela’s biography.

There was a carnival atmosphere in Noordgesig where parents and learners to charge of their new school, refurbished to the tune of R110 mln by the Gauteng Education Department (GDE).

Gauteng Premier David Makhura, his Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi and Infrastructure and Development MEC Tasneem Motara were on hand to officially unveil the refurbished institution.

The school will service some 2,000 pupils from the community.

In the Vaal in Gauteng, the first day of school got off to tragic start at Khutlo-Tharo Secondary School in Sebokeng as a fire gutted the school’s administration block.

It’s not yet known how the fire started, and an investigation has been opened.

Premier Makhura dispatched his MEC cohort to various schools across the province to oversee the smooth running of the first day of school.

They assessed conditions in each of the schools to which they were deployed, as well as consulted with communities on education related matters.

As was the case in KwaZulu-Natal, where the Education Department said some 169 000 Grade 1s will start school in the province in 2020.

The city of Witbank in Mpumalanga had big hitters from national government dropping in to help usher in the new school year.

Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu addressed educators the at Elukhanyisweni Secondary School, and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe made a stop at the Bonginsimbi Comprehensive School.

In the Northern Cape CoGTA MEC Bentley Vass today walked the talk at the Vuyolwethu High School in the Sol Plaatjie Municipality, where he helped clean the school yard.

Northern Cape Premier, Zamani Saul, also officially opened the Steynville Primary School in Hopetown, saying the school, with its modern IT infrastructure, has brought opportunities for local jobs and local businesses in the area.

“We are placing learners by the hour,” said the Western Cape Education Department ahead of school opening rush.

Ahead of the new school year, the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Oscar Lubabalo Mabuyane, led his Provincial Executive on a province wide ‘Back-to-School’ drive in a call to young people to return to the classroom.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of a fire at the Khutlo Tharo secondary school in Sebokeng in the Vaal.

The fire started in the early hours of this morning, just as the new school year begins.

It’s understood part of the admin block of Khutlo Tharo Secondary School has been burning since about 2 am.

It’s not yet known what sparked the blaze which has now been contained

“The cause of the fire is yet to be determined but the fire department is there to quell the flames,” police spokesperson Mathapelo Peters said.

The start of the 2020 school year in Gauteng will be marked by the handing over of the newly constructed, R110mln Noordgesig Primary School in the Johannesburg North District.

“This is an important milestone, as the school is among our newly designed and constructed mega school infrastructure, aimed at improving the quality of education in township schools,” a statement from the Gauteng Education Department (GDE) said.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura will lead his Members of the Executive Council (MECs) in visiting various schools across the province to oversee the smooth running of the first day of school.

They will assess conditions in each of the schools to which they are deployed, as well as consult with communities on education related matters.

In addition, and for the first time, the MEC’s will also assess Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre’s as this function now falls under the department of education.

On placements, the GDE said they have received and processed about 700 appeals which were compounded by implementation of the new Admissions Regulations. All appellants should receive their responses by 14 January 2019, it said.

“I have personally received overwhelming messages from frustrated parents, and indeed the pain is unbearable, on behalf of Gauteng government, I wish to convey our sincere apology for putting parents through this unbearable pain, I am so sorry,” said Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.

“All appeals were carefully considered and fairly adjudicated. The outcome of each appeal is based on compliance with Admissions Regulations and availability of space at schools.”

The GDE added that their challenge is capacity rather than the system. “Parents are reluctant to accept offered spaces for different reasons. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate a certain number of Learners at our schools and as such call upon parents to accept placement offers by the as these are the only spaces available at some schools.”

To mitigate for capacity challenges, the said its finalising a partnership with Curro Schools to accommodate children at their schools.

“These were looked at in line with the fee structure of Curro Schools compared to that of public schools, which in principle will be a discounted fee. The distance between the Curro schools and the public schools, and the possibility of using scholar transport.”

Regarding late applications, “The department will tomorrow, 15 January 2020 open the system for late online applications, and close on the 24th January 2020. ONLY schools with capacity will be availed in the system during this period.“

The GDE said based on the statistics on their system, it has a total of 912 primary schools and 374 high schools with space available for late applications.

“We anticipate high volumes of late applications, and officials are making every effort to ensure that applicants are assisted, and that placement is facilitated without delay,” said Lesufi.

“Applicants will provisionally be placed, until they submit documents to the school accordingly. No objections or appeals will be entertained,” the GDE emphasized.

The Department conceded that it had “serious” capacity challenges in Tshwane West, Tshwane South, Johannesburg Central, Johannesburg East, Johannesburg North and Ekurhuleni South.

“As such, we are finalizing the process of providing temporarily accommodation in a form of mobile units at some affected schools as a matter of urgency, this will also be extended to some schools that were vandalized or burned by the community.

As another method of Intervention, we had to negotiate with some schools to increase their capacity to accommodate more learners and such schools, will be prioritized in provisioning of mobile units.”

The GDE made specific mention of Tokelo Secondary School which saw it’s classes and administration block burnt down in December.

It said to ensure readiness for the new academic year, 1200 learner chairs, 400 student desks, 6 teacher desks, 3 Oak desks and 3 high back chairs for principal and deputies and 36 chairs for the staff room were delivered to the school.

“However, we have identified a school in the neighbouring area to in the interim accommodate some of Tokelo Secondary learners,” the GFDE added.

“We, really engaged in thorough preparations to ensure that Schools are ready to commence with teaching and learning activities on Day 1 of the 2020 Academic Year, our senior management also conducted visits throughout the Province making sure schools are ready for teaching and learning accordingly” MEC Lesufi said.

The Competition Commission is calling on parents to sound the alarm if schools do not comply with the uniform guidelines issued by the Department of Basic Education (DBE).

This forms part of efforts to ensure school uniforms becomes more “reasonable and affordable” for parents.

The Commission said the Federation of Governing Bodies of South Africa – an association of largely public schools – as well as the Independent Schools of Southern Africa, has publicly pledged to comply with these guidelines.

“The success of the initiative to bring reasonable and affordable uniforms depends largely on involved and active patents. If governing bodies manage schools on behalf of their parents, it cannot be that parents must bear the brunt of expensive prices,” the Commission said.

In January 2017, the Commission opened an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behaviour in the school uniform market as a response to complaints from parents and school uniform suppliers. 

Sipho Ngwema, Head of Communications at the Competition Commission said the frequency of complaints from parents regarding the high price of uniforms spurred the organisation into action.

“We received complaints from parents about schools coercing them to buy from certain exclusively selected suppliers and at a very high cost,” he said.

The DBE uniform guidelines include: 

– School uniforms should be as generic as possible, so that it is accessible
from as many suppliers as possible.
– Exclusivity should be limited to items that schools regard as necessary to
obtain from pre-selected suppliers, for example badges.
– Schools should follow a competitive bidding process when appointing
suppliers.
– Schools should appoint more than one supplier in order to give parents
more options.
– The concluded agreements should be of limited duration.

The Commission last year also signed agreements to curb high school uniform prices and anti-competitive behaviour with several private schools including Curro, Advtech and Reddam House.

“We reached a consent agreement with some schools, and we are working with national governing bodies and schools organisations,” said Ngwema.

While parents had to contend with paying excessive prices for uniforms, some suppliers complained of market exclusion as some schools had entered into exclusive contracts with certain school uniform suppliers.

The regulator said it’s continuing engagements with relevant stakeholders, including private schools, school uniform suppliers, governing bodies and government to ensure there is compliance and adequate monitoring and oversight on the issue.

The Commission is currently working with various schools to assist them in building capacity needed to monitor and manage “anti-competitive conduct.”

These interventions include phasing out exclusive and evergreen contracts with suppliers.

The Commission added that introducing reasonable and affordable prices for uniforms will be a gradual process and urged parents and guardians to help in monitoring anti-competitive conduct in schools.

The Commission encouraged parents and guardians to insist that governing bodies implement the uniform guidelines.

We shall continue with our engagement with schools and suppliers to make sure that they are in line with the Competition Act. We will also continue to investigate and prosecute those who remain defiant,” said Ngwema.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has expressed shock at the brutal murder of a principal of a Johannesburg school just days before the start of the new school year.

Emmanuel Tshivhase (53) was shot and killed Thursday, just 3km from the Jabulile Secondary School in Orange Farm.

It’s understood that Tshivhase had stopped on the side of the road to take a call when he was ambushed by an unknown assailant.

Departmental spokesperson Steve Mabona said officials have visited the family.

“MEC Lesufi is disturbed by the death of one of our principles, especially in the midst of preparations for the opening of our schools on 15 January.”

South Africa has “for the first time in the history of our democratic country,” achieved a national matric pass rate of 81.3 percent.

A visibly elated Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the results of the 2019 matric examinations at Vodaworld in Midrand Tuesday evening, which saw all nine Education MEC’s in attendance.

This article was made possible by the generous support of Vodacom SA.