Joburg - Gauteng MEC of Education Panyaza Lesufi has urged parents and guardians to be ready and prepared as the 2023 online admissions for grades 1 and 8 are going live on Friday at 8am.
With the support of the Gauteng HOD of Education Edward Mosuwe and deputy director Mmule Mandonsela, Lesufi led a media briefing at Jeppe High School for Boys, Joburg on Thursday on the opening of the Online Application of the 2023 academic year.
During the presentation, the MEC indicated that they had separate applications in 2021 for grades one and eight but this year all the applications would go through a single process, "which means there will not be a process for grades one and eight, all parents can apply at the same time for both grades."
He said the system would receive a high volume of applications that would lead to a system crash or a slowdown but the MEC assured parents and guardians that the system would not crash because of the improvements they had made. He stated that the system can take up to 120 000 applications an hour.
On the system improvements, he said all schools would remain open and accessible on the system for applications during the application period and no school would disappear from the system.
He further cautioned parents that placements would be based on admissions criteria and availability of spaces in line with school capacity.
He said improvements to the system included various languages, “Applicants will be afforded the opportunity to make informed choices regarding languages offered when applying to a school. Language of learning and teaching, home language and additional languages offered by each school will be visible on the system to applicants during the application period."
He mentioned the following documents as the documents that are required for the Grade 1 and 8 applications:
1. Parent and child ID or passport
2. Refugee permit
3. Asylum seeker permit
4. Permanent residence permit
5. Study permit
6. Your South African birth certificate
7. Proof of home address
8. Proof of work address
9. Latest school report
10. Clinic card/Immunisation report (Grade 1 only)
According to Lesufi, the system had been tested to handle 40 000 concurrent users at any given time, performing a total of 120 000 complete applications in one hour and the Department of Home Affairs had opened a secure dedicated port channel to handle the requests from the system.
Mosuwe assured parents that the system would not crash and no one would be left in the application process.
Furthermore, Lesufi stated that “All learners in Grade R at a school or ECD centre MUST be applied for using the GDE Online Admissions System to be accepted at a school for Grade 1 in the 2023 academic year. No Grade R learner will be automatically accepted into Grade 1 at any Gauteng public school without applying online.”
The MEC will on Friday be in Mohlakeng Recreation Centre to assist parents to apply as the system opens at 8am and will also visit a local library to monitor operations as parents will also be assisted at libraries when applications open.
Current Affairs