Late applications for Grades 1 and Grade 8 are open until the end of January

Gauteng Education Department (GDE) has announced late online applicants for Grades 1 and 8 have until January 31 to submit applications for placement in the 2024 academic year.

MEC Matome Chiloane told a press briefing at Noordwyk Secondary School the online application period will be open from December 18 to January 31.

Chiloane said the late application period is for parents who have not applied at all, but he warned them that they will have fewer options.

“For these parents, we are just going to show them where are the schools. They are not going to have the luxury of saying I want this one, we are simply going to tell them where the space is. If you want your child placed in a school, here are the ones we have available and there are no other options.”

Chioane said the ever-growing Gauteng economy was one of the reasons for the problems with placing every child in school on time but added parents who have applied on time will have their children placed when the academic year commences.

“Gauteng’s education system is growing very fast. We are growing at about 30 000 [more] learners a year, so every year we get another 30 000, so you can understand the pressure on the system. It’s not an ideal situation that we’d like to find ourselves in as a province, but you know that within migration toward urban centres around the world, Gauteng will be one of those and it’s demonstrated with the system currently. The system is growing but we are not building schools fast enough, so we find ourselves here,” he said.

The department received 305 981 online applications this year – 273 186 complete and more than 32 000 incomplete, which means certain documents were missing or the forms weren’t filled out correctly.

Chiloane said 99.8% of the applicants whose applications were complete have been placed and he reassured the remaining parents that their children will be placed by January 17, when schools reopen.

“The thing about incomplete applications is the parents may have applied on time but maybe couldn’t submit this or that document, we offer those learners a space but they still need to take those documents to the school [to complete the application]. The unfortunate part is these parents can’t object, the only ones that can are the ones with complete applications.”

He said the department is expecting the 2024 academic to be a greater and more enthusiastic one and is pleased with the progress made despite the hiccups. He added that the department is engaging with parents of children who haven’t been placed yet for a solution.

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