Gauteng parents have until midnight to submit online applications for the 2020 admissions.
Applications for the 2020 online application period opened at 08:00 on 20 May 2019 and will close on Monday, 22 July 2019.
“We would like to caution parents who have not yet applied for admission of learners to be admitted to Grade 1 and Grade 8 in 2020 that they have exactly one school day to apply online before the admissions application period closes,” said Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.
Applications can be made by logging on to www.gdeadmissions.gov.za or by visiting the nearest School, District or Head Office for assistance.
Lesufi said parents have embraced the online application system with a total of 220 802 applications recorded for admissions 2020 when the system went live on 20 May 2019.
“We are deeply disturbed that 62 028 of the 298 003 applicants have not submitted the required documents to schools. Parents will not receive offers of placement from schools where no documents were submitted,” said the MEC.
In a bid to accommodate parents that could not submit documents within seven days, the department extended the deadline for submission until 31 July 2019 at 14:00.
“Parents must submit documents to all the schools that they applied to. When submitting documents, parents must receive a receipt to acknowledge the submission of documents accordingly,” said the MEC.
With verification of all school’s waiting lists being conducted at district and head office level from 1 to 29 August 2019, parents have been urged to respond to communication from the department especially requests made using SMS.
Placement period commences in August
The placement period for admission 2020 will commence on 30 August 2019 and close on 31 October 2019.
Placement offers will be sent to parents via SMS until on 31 October 2019.
“It must be noted that placement offers will not be sent to all parents on the same day, as the department will be processing offers systematically daily in line with the order of application options outlined in the admissions regulations.
“Parents are therefore urged to remain calm if they do not receive offers immediately after the commencement of the placement period,” said the department.
Parents may follow up after 31 October 2019, only if they did not receive any offers of placement.
Once an offer has been sent, parents must accept offers online by logging on to www.gdeadmissions.gov.za or by visiting the nearest school, district or head office, within seven days.
Failure to accept one offer of placement within seven days will result in a learner automatically being placed at one of the schools that made the offer.
Admissions criteria will be applied as per Regulation 7 (2) and (3) of the Admissions Regulations which provides that:
(2) An applicant for an entry phase admission to a school is eligible for
admission if:
a) the applicant learner’s place of residence is closest to the school within the feeder zone;
b) the applicant learner has a sibling attending the school;
c) the place of employment of at least one of the applicant learner’s parents is within the feeder zone of the school;
d) the applicant learner’s place of residence is within a 30-kilometre radius of the school; or
e) the applicant learner’s place of residence is beyond a 30-kilometre radius of the school.
(3) The ranking of the applications for admission shall be in the order of the categories referred to in paragraphs (a) to (e) of sub-regulation (2) and in the order in which the applications were received.
Parents may receive more than one offer of placement should the learner qualify for placement at more than one of the schools applied to. However, parents can accept only one offer.
Lesufi thanked parents for embracing the online applications system for the 2020 academic year.
“Ultimately, the capacity of each school will determine the number of applicants that receive placement offers and the number of learners finally admitted to the school,” said MEC Lesufi. – SAnews.gov.za
