Factors affecting parents’ choice of schools for Grade 1 learners

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Factors affecting parents’ choice of schools for Grade 1 learners
 
Creator Venketsamy, Roy Miller, Denise
 
Subject — Grade 1; school choice; curriculum; language; safety
Description Background: Parents are challenged to choose schools for their Grade 1 learners. They believe that the Department of Education’s zoning and admission policy is too restrictive. Schools also do not provide adequate information to allow parents to make their choice.Aim: This article aimed to identify factors that influence parents’ choice of schools for their Grade 1 learners.Setting: This study was conducted in Gauteng province. The identified environment and location provided rich data solicited from the participants on how they chose the schools.Methods: This was a qualitative case study using individual and focus group interviews, with 10 parents (5 mothers and 5 fathers) of children enrolled in an ex-model C school. The parents’ choice of school was examined through the seminal work of Hirschman’s ‘Exit, Voice and Loyalty’ theoretical framework, which applied the three different elements to understand and identify the phenomenon of school choice in South Africa.Results: The data gathered indicated that parents made choices considering the following factors: proximity; cost; curriculum; technology and relationships.Conclusion: Since parents disagreed with the department’s policy on admission, the Minister of the Gauteng Department of Education stated that the new school feeder zone regulation would ensure fair access to schools for all learners. This means that learners will not be discriminated against where they live. During the admission application process, the amended regulations are intended to assist learners to access schools in compliance with certain criteria. Parents are encouraged to select a minimum of three schools to enrol their children.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-06-18
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v11i1.913
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 11, No 1 (2021); 9 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/913/1828 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/913/1827 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/913/1829 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/913/1826
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Roy Venketsamy, Denise Miller https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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