Gauteng MEC for Education Matome Chiloane described the 2026 online admissions application period as successful after the department received 820 350 applications.

There were 354 916 applications for Grade One and 465 434 for Grade Eight, submitted by 358 574 unique applicants for placement in the 2026 academic year.

• Unique applicants is a term to describe individual or child-specific applicants

• Individual applicants had a minimum of three and a maximum of five schools to apply to, hence one unique applicant can have multiple applications.

• Therefore, while there were 820 350 applications, these were submitted by 358 574 unique (individual) applicants.

The above translates to:

• 175 792 unique applicants with complete applications for Grade One.

• 182 782 unique applicants with complete applications for Grade Eight.

• 51 947 applications were regarded as incomplete because parents did not submit valid proof of their home address

• Applicants with incomplete applications will not receive placement offers.

Placement period

The 2026 online admissions placement period for Grades One and Eight will begin on October 16 and continue until all learners are placed.

From that day, parents and guardians with complete applications for Grade One and/or Grade Eight will start receiving placement offers through SMS notifications sent to the cellphone numbers provided when they registered the applications.

Within seven days of receiving a placement offer, the parents or guardians must log on to www.gdeadmissions.gov.za using their credentials to either accept the offer as final or accept it while awaiting others.

It must be noted that when a parent accepts an offer from a school as final, the learner is then placed at that school. Placement offers that are accepted as final cannot be reversed.

SMS notifications with placement offers will be issued from October 16 until all learners are placed.

This means that not all applicants will receive an SMS on the first day of the placement period, but parents or guardians must expect an SMS anytime from October 16 and throughout the course of the academic year.

If parents or guardians have not received an SMS with a placement offer, there is no need to panic, as the offer status may be viewed on the parent profile created during the application period.

Use your username and password to log in to www.gdeadmissions.gov.za and check if the department has issued a placement offer.

Forgot password or lost credentials

Parents and guardians who may have forgotten or lost their username and password must click on ‘forgot password’ on the landing page and follow the prompts to regain access to the system.

Alternatively, parents and guardians are welcome to interact with GDE call centre agents on 080 000 0789 or WhatsApp on 060 891 0361. High call volumes and walk-ins are common during the placement period.

Placement offers

If an SMS states that your child has been placed in Grade One or Grade Eight at a certain school, this will be regarded as a successful placement at the mentioned school.

There will be no need for a parent or guardian to access the system to accept an offer in that regard, because the child would be placed at the mentioned school.

Parents who applied to more than one school are encouraged to accept offers while awaiting other offers.

This may allow for more possible offers to choose from schools with available space. If a parent receives no further placement offers within seven days of receiving an offer, it means all other schools applied to have reached capacity. In this case, the learner is placed at the school where the last offer of placement was accepted while awaiting further offers.

High-pressure schools

The department has identified 438 (236 primary; 202 secondary) schools that received 40 762 applications beyond their available capacity:

• 15 139 Grade One applicants in 236 primary schools applied to; and

• 25 623 Grade Eight applicants in 202 secondary schools applied to.

The 40 762 applicants will receive placement offers from the next closest schools with available space.

Placement of unplaced applicants

Parents or guardians are reminded that all placements are subject to the priority of placement criteria and availability of space per school.

Therefore, applicants who cannot be accommodated at schools they applied to due to the schools having reached capacity will receive transfer offers of placement at the next closest school with available space.

Transfer offers are made only after confirmation that none of the schools to which a parent applied has available space. Parents who applied to more than one school are encouraged to accept offers while awaiting others.

Objections and appeals

To allow a fair admissions process, provision is made for objections and appeals.

To submit an objection, the parent should decline the placement offer and complete an electronic objection form online.

Objections must be submitted within seven days of receiving the placement offer. Note that when placement is offered at one of the schools that the parent applied to, objections and appeals cannot be submitted.

All objections are investigated on merit, and an outcome is provided within 14 days of submission.

Applicants who decline the objection outcome may submit an appeal online within seven days of receiving the objection outcome.

Appeals are processed and responded to within 14 to 21 days of receipt. Parents must note that the appeal outcome is final.