Online school applications close Monday: what follows next
Parents of Grade 1 and 8 learners should heed these deadlines to ensure their children can go to school next year
Parents are reminded there are only four days left to apply online for Grade 1 and 8 as the online system will shut down on Monday, May 28 at midnight.Parents that have applied are reminded to submit the required documents at schools urgently. As a special concession, schools will accept documents only up to 2pm June 5.
Failure to submit documents will lead to applicants forfeiting their positions in the queue.To date, 535 064 applications have been processed since the start of the online applications on April 16 – 251 808 applications for Grade 1 and 283 256 for Grade 8.
Based on the number of applications registered to date, there are 596 schools where demand exceeds available spaces. Some of the schools in these areas have recorded between 1 538 and 1 960 applications for either Grade 1 or Grade 8.
There are 385 schools with less than 50 applications, 79 schools with less than 20 applications, and 69 schools with less than 10 applications. These schools are all located in townships.
“It is concerning that in the last two years many parents in townships waited for the late application period and flooded Gauteng Department of Education offices in January to apply for their children,” the department said.
The Department is moving away from late applications and parents who do not apply online by midnight on May 28 are running the risk of having their children out of school in January 2019.The placement process will start on July 18 and end on October 31. Parents should note that availability of space is the key determinant of how many children can be placed in a school. Placement will be conducted in compliance with admissions criteria and on a first-come-first-served basis.
During the placement period, principals will receive the approved and signed waiting lists from district directors to process offers of placement. Schools will send offers of placement to parents from July 8 to August 3. During this period, parents will receive sms notifications regarding the status of their applications.
Parents are to confirm offers of placement within seven working days of receipt. Parents who do not confirm acceptance and/or reject offers will forfeit the space offered. From August 6 to October 31, districts will facilitate placement of learners who could not be placed by schools.
The Gauteng Education MEC, Mr. Panyaza Lesufi, said: “We are indebted to all parents who have heeded to our call and applied in numbers, the response from the public was indeed overwhelming. We encourage those that have applied to conform to the stipulated deadline.”
