Parents urged to respond to school placement offers

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Gauteng Department of Education has appealed to parents who have received offers of placement to respond immediately.

The department on Monday said about 71 275 parents have not yet responded to offers of placement, which may result in forfeiting their spot in the queue. It said the lack of response is causing serious delays on the system.

The department has sent SMS notification to parents to remind them to respond to the offers of placement.

Since the placement period started three weeks ago on 24 July, about 117 081 learners have been placed, including 65 595 in Grade 1 and 51 486 in Grade 8.

The placement of learners at schools commenced on 24 July and will close on 20 October.

In total, the department said it has received about 285 834 applications by 12 June, the closing date, of which approximately 157 369 is for Grade 1 and 128 465 is for Grade 8.

“All schools, district offices and head office are able to assist parents to accept offers of placement. Parents should rest assured that districts are currently in the process of placing learners who were not placed by schools.

“The department is working around the clock to finalise placement of unplaced learners by 20 October. All parents who have not yet submitted the required documents to the relevant school will be advised on a date to submit.”

The department said it will determine when to open the Online Application System for late applications, after the placement of applicants who applied on or before 12 June is concluded. The decision will be communicated in the media.

Parents, who have not received any response thus far, must contact the district office.

The department’s MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, has thanked Gauteng residents for the overwhelming response to the online admissions.

“The early processing of admissions means that learning and teaching can commence on the first day of the 2018 academic calendar. The cooperation of parents will be highly appreciated,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za