The Swakopmund Circuit introduced a central registration venue for pre-primary and Grade 1 school placement for 2024 at the Mondesa Multi-Purpose Centre, which started operating on Monday.
The new process of having one central registration venue came about through a meeting by the Swakopmund Circuit with school principals in an effort to streamline the process. Previously, parents would go directly to the different schools to register their children where they want them enrolled.
In an interview with Nampa on Monday, Jermaine Manuel whose child needs placement for pre-primary said he has been camping at the venue since last Tuesday so that he could get a good spot in the queue.
“Once the announcement for the registration dates was made, I knew I had to secure a good spot in the queue if I was to get a spot at the school that I want my child to go to, so I decided to come here as early as Tuesday, put my name on the list and kept coming back to ensure that it was still the case,” he stated.
Education Inspector for the Swakopmund Circuit, Tania Louw in an interview with Nampa on Monday said the change was prompted by the need to deal with the issue of placement as promptly as possible and to avoid the scramble of the beginning of each year.
“A central venue will enable us to come and sit and immediately do record keeping of those parents who were not able to get space for Grade 1 so that we can already start our planning process according to the needs of spaces,” Louw explained.
The circuit is then responsible to work from the records keeping list to ensure that all the learners are placed in Grade 1.
There were 625 spaces available for pre-primary and 1 050 for Grade 1 at the town, so schools who already offer pre-primary will continue with these learners to Grade 1 and enrol new learners for the remaining spaces.
The inspector has assured parents who do not get a chance to register their children during the two days that placement will continue.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency