Yesterday, Lesufi said the province was ready for 2017 despite not having placed all 82,279 pupils in schools. So far 229125 pupils had been placed in Gauteng schools but more than 10000 parents had not accepted the placements offered to them by the department.
"Some of the parents are taking time to confirm the offers of placement, creating a backlog in the system," Lesufi said.
Parents had until Wednesday to confirm offers of placement or they would be given to other pupils.
Parents were furious this year when the province launched its online application system, which was initially riddled with technical glitches.
Lesufi said despite complaints from parents, the system had been successful in eradicating no-go schools, which accepted pupils only from families who traditionally attended the school, and the cherry-picking of pupils based on their parents' ability to pay fees.
Lesufi said online applications hadenabled the department to identify unplaced pupils in December and deal with them early, instead of in January when the academic year begins. Schools in certain areas had reached capacity and could not take more pupils. These included schools in Boksburg, Kempton Park, Benoni, Tembisa, Krugersdorp, Lenasia, Midrand, Bryanston, Germiston, Florida and Pretoria East and North.
Lesufi said online applications would continue in 2017, with improvements made to the system from the lessons learnt this year.
The department is working to make changes to the province's feeder zone policy after the Constitutional Court ordered that the policy, which states a child must attend a school within a 5km radius of where he or she lives, had to go.
Lesufi said a task team was looking at options for a new policy and that a workshop would be held with stakeholders early in 2017.
"[The new feeder zones] will finally break the backbone of the Group Areas Act. We are introducing a format to ensure our schools are nonracial."
The department would continue to help township and semi-rural schools with meals for pupils but might have to cut meals at more affluent schools in the suburbs.
Lesufi said affluent schools did not get funding for meals from the national government but that the children of, for example, domestic workers who might attend these schools were unable to afford lunch. The department had made provision for these pupils but was now in the red by R105-million.
"Withdrawing catering for those schools is high on the agenda," Lesufi said.
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