The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has as of Wednesday successfully placed a total of 268 192 Grade 1 and 8 learners, whose parents applied for placement in government schools using the online admissions system.
This translates to a total of 135 465 Grade 1 learners and 132 727 Grade 8 learners who have been placed in preparation for the 2023 academic year.
“It must be noted that, after conducting a thorough analysis on our online admissions system, it is unlikely that the remaining number of learners will be placed by end of business today, as purported in our previous communication to the public. As such, we wish to profusely apologise to parents for this inconvenience.
“Subsequently, only 31 549 (8 142 for Grade 1 and 23 407 for Grade 8) remain to be placed, and our officials across the province are working tirelessly to ensure that these learners are adequately placed,” the GDE said in a statement on Wednesday.
The department assured parents that the process will continue until all unplaced learners are placed.
“As mentioned previously, our challenge is capacity at schools in high pressure areas that received large volumes of applications which exceed the number of learners they can accommodate. We have therefore decided to increase capacity at all identified high pressure schools by providing mobile units that will be delivered before the commencement of the 2023 academic year,” the GDE said.
The department said that it has also strengthened its transfer placement system, meaning that some learners who could not be placed at preferred schools due to capacity constraints have been, and will continue being, transferred to schools with available space.
From Thursday, 1 December 2022, the department will commence with the process of placing all applicants who were unable to provide their proof of address during the application period.
During this process, all applicants who submitted incomplete documents (proof of residential address) will be offered placement at schools with available space. Parents will receive transfer placement offers via SMS, and they may also log on to the System to check their placement status.
The system will be open from 20 December 2022 until 20 January 2023 for late applications to accommodate parents who were unable to apply.
The department added that parents who applied during the application period must not re-apply during the late application period.
The GDE urged parents to note that applications made during the late application period will be placed at schools with available spaces.
Schools that have reached full capacity will not be available for parents applying during the late application period. Late applicants will be allowed to submit only one application, which will result in immediate placement.
Upon submitting a late application, applicants are urged to submit all documents physically at the school(s) they applied to from 9 January 2023 to finalise their placement.
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane has appealed to parents to be patient as the department finalises the placement of all unplaced learners.
“We wish to assure parents that when the 2023 academic year commences, we are adamant that every Grade 1 and Grade 8 learner in Gauteng will be at a desk with learning material in a class with an educator receiving quality education. As such, we appeal for patience among parents as we embark on the process of finalising the placement of all unplaced learners,” Chiloane said.
Source: South African Government News Agency