The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) says it has made significant progress in placing learners who were left unplaced at the start of the 2026 academic year.

The department says since the start of January, it has successfully placed 26 312 learners in Grades R, 1, and 8 across the province, in addition to the tens of thousands of learners placed during 2025.

WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond says despite placing 96% of all learners who applied last year, including late applications submitted up to 10 December, the WCED faced an unprecedented influx of extremely late applications at the start of 2026.

“Since January, the department has received 25 065 new extremely late applications for Grades R, 1, and 8. As of 6 February 2026, 99.6% of Grade 8 learners have been placed, with placement in progress for 396 learners. Placement is in progress for 326 Grade 1 learners, representing over 99% placement, while placement is in progress for 1 148 Grade R learners, with 13 905 extremely late applications received this year alone.”

Hammond stressed that the department worked with the utmost urgency to ensure that all learners who were not registered at a school, are placed timeously.

 “The fact that more than 26 000 placements have been made within four weeks is a remarkable accomplishment by our team.”

The WCED says it continues to process new extremely late applications daily and appeals to the public to allow officials the space to complete placements.