The Gauteng Department of Education has managed to place 77% of all applicants, who applied for admission at schools in the province, for 2018.
A total of 222 378 learners, representing 77% of all applicants, have been placed to date.
“This figure is a sum of 123 450 for Grade 1 and 98 928 for Grade 8 learners,” Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said.
Addressing a media briefing, the MEC said a total of 285 834 learners needed placement in the province’s schools.
“A total of 63 456 applicants still need to be placed, 35 865 of which have not submitted documents to the schools. The department has plans to ensure that all applicants that applied on time are placed,” MEC Lesufi said.
The online application process started on 2 May 2017 and closed on 12 June 2017. The placement process, which started in July 2017, closed on Friday 20 October 2017.
“Once more, an appeal is made to those applicants that have not yet submitted the required documents to do so. The applicants given offers of placement should respond before Tuesday, 31 October 2017 or will forfeit such offers,” MEC Lesufi said.
To assist parents that did not apply for their children during the application period, the system will open for late application from 1 November 2017 to 10 November 2017.
However, no new applications will be processed in January 2018 as schools are full.
“Parents that have already applied and are awaiting placement must not re-apply. These parents must approach district offices for assistance,” MEC Lesufi said.
No late applications
Parents should note that several schools are already full and cannot accept more learners.
“There are 2 017 public ordinary schools that offer Grade 1 and 8. It must be noted that 402 of these schools received applications beyond their school capacity and will not be available to parents to submit late applications,” MEC Lesufi said.
The following is a breakdown of the number of schools not available for late applications per region:
- Sediwes Region: 35 (SE: 5; SW: 21; GW: 9)
- Johannesburg Region: 134 (JN: 19; JC: 21; JE: 29; JS: 27; JW: 38)
- Ekurhuleni Region: 131(EN: 65; ES: 35; GE: 31)
- Tshwane Region: 102 (TW: 31; TN: 22; TS: 43; GN: 6)
The detailed list of schools is available on the GDE website http://www.education.gpg.gov.za/Pages/Home.aspx.
The main objective of early application is to enable planning for the following academic year. Specifically, the aim is to ensure learning and teaching starts on the first school day in January 2018.
“The department is in the last phase of procurement and distribution of Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) and school furniture. In addition, recruitment of additional educators is being finalised. Plans for nutrition and scholar transport are at an advanced stage,” MEC Lesufi said.
For further assistance with admission queries, parents can contact the GDE at the following:
Call centre number – 0800 000 789
Email: gdeinfo@gauteng.gov.za
Social media: Twitter and Instagram - @EducationGP and Gauteng Department of Education on Facebook
Parents can also visit their nearest district office for assistance with further queries. – SAnews.gov.za
