First day of school goes off with relatively few hitches

11 January 2017 - 19:21 By Azizzar Mosupi
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The first day of school has‚ according to the department of basic education‚ gone off predominantly without a hitch but there are few concerns that the department will look into.

Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

The Western Cape received the all-clear‚ “except for many tears from learners who started school for the first time‚” said Basic Education spokesperson‚ Elijah Mhlanga.

“Aside from unplaced learners - we are all systems go‚” he added.

  • IN PICTURES: Kids putting on a brave face for the first day of schoolSouth Africa's children started school today (many probably in uncomfortable new shoes). Some were clearly more excited about it than others as you can see from these pictures sent in by our readers 

Mpumalanga’s first day “went on very well”‚ with no incidents having been reported. Recent storms‚ however‚ have caused damage to some schools and the department says that they are profiling the schools that will require repairs.

The Gauteng province continues to battle with late admissions and “long queues in district offices”‚ with Limpopo having a stationery delivery problem that the department says it is attending to.

  • Instruction to admit more learners has potential to destroy quality of education: FedsasThe instruction given by the Gauteng department of education to admit more learners in schools‚ despite protestations by school governing bodies‚ has the potential to destroy the quality of education in those schools. 

Parents took to social media to share their various experiences of the first day of school.

CynthiaM ‏@cinzleme tweeted “Your little sister's future #MCM ready to finesse this education and break hearts #backtoschool” with a picture of a young boy clad in uniform and ready for his first day at school.

LuisMzi ‏@Lungisa35 on the other hand tweeted a picture of a boy‚ held tightly by his mother as he seemingly fights the idea of going back to school.

“#backtoschool turns violent again in 2017‚ 2017 Grade R learners continuing where the 2016 generation left off. #AlutaContinua”

Some users took the opportunity to warn eager parents when posting pictures of their children.

Harry Friedland‚ ‏@HJFriedland tweeted: “Security suggestion: when tweeting pics of your kids on the subject #BackToSchool‚ don't include their names!”

TMG Digital/The Times

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