The Gauteng Department of Education has urged parents of learners who wish to be placed in schools in 2020 to respond to offers of placement and submit the required documents.
“To date, 6 428 parents have not responded to the requirement to respond to offers of placement within seven days. The number of parents that have not submitted or do not have documents are 27 563,” said the department.
This comes as the department is administering the 2020 admission process. Places in Gauteng schools are in demand due to the constant annual increase in learner numbers.
The 2020 admission process is being conducted under the new Regulations and Feeder Zones Policy whereby a parent can apply at any school but placement depends ultimately on available space and capacity of the school.
The department said capacity of the school is a function of the size of the school and the number of current Grades 1 and 8 learners that have been retained or do not pass to the higher grades.
Placement in terms of the revised regulations follows this order of priority:
- Applicants with home address closest to the school within the feeder zone
- If the school still has space, applicants with siblings are placed. If there is no space, siblings are placed at a school with available space within the feeder zone.
- After Criteria 1 and 2 are exhausted, applicant with work address within the feeder zone are placed, if the school still has space. If not, the learners will be placed where there is space available.
- Still, subject to space availability, learners whose parents live within the 30km radius of school, are placed.
- Finally, learners whose parents live beyond the 30km radius of the school are placed, if the school has space.
“Some schools and regions are defined as higher pressure due to the fact that they reached their capacity when the placement period started.
“As of the 04 November 2019, the number of schools that have reached their capacity is 391. Some schools in the township, such as Unity in Daveyton and Bhukulani in Soweto received more than 1 000 applications against total capacity of 150 and 210 respectively,” said the department.
The top three schools that reached capacity on the first day of placement are Northcliff High School, Alberton High School, Boksburg High School. Northcliff High received 1485 against a capacity of 280.
Those schools that have reached capacity are longer available on the online system.
The department said a parent that does not prefer the offer of placement should lodge an objection with the district. Objection forms are forms are available online at www.gdeadmissions.gov.za or at the district office.
Should the parent remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the objection, the parent may complete an appeal form – which is also available online – and e-mail to Admissions.Hotline.@gauteng.gov.za.
The number of learners placed has increased to 241 806, which represents 85.5% of total applications received. Of the number placed, 131 383 were placed in Grade 1 and 110 423 were placed in Grade 8. Total applications received is 310 350.
The deadline to finalise all placements has been extended to 30 November 2019.
“I am confident, that the department will and can deal with the backlog. Once more we apologise for the inconvenience caused to parents.
“Parents that have used the system are also recognised as our warriors for change and we are eternally indebted for their support and positive response. Your concerns and feedback is highly appreciated and will be used to improve the online system,” said Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi. – SAnews.gov.za
