Online applications for Grades 1 and 8 close at midnight, warns Gauteng education department

A parent registering her child on the education department website. Picture: Jacques Naude African News Agency(ANA)

A parent registering her child on the education department website. Picture: Jacques Naude African News Agency(ANA)

Published Aug 19, 2022

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The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has issued an urgent reminder to parents and guardians that the 2023 online admissions application period for Grade 1 and Grade 8 will close at midnight tonight.

Parents who have not made their application are urged to visit the website www.gdeadmissions.gov.za to register and apply urgently, as the Online Admissions System will shut down at exactly midnight.

So far, a total of 748 485 Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications have been successfully recorded to date since the start of the 2023 Online Admissions application period in July.

As of Friday morning, the GDE Online Admissions System recorded a total of 323 294 applications made for Grade 1 and 448 168 applications made for Grade 8.

Parents and guardians who have applied today (Friday), but have not uploaded documents, are urged to upload urgently or physically submit their documents at all schools they have applied to within seven school days. The deadline for this will be 30 August 2022.

Documents cannot be uploaded to the system after 19 August 2022, the department warned.

Applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 that are made with no documents submitted or uploaded will be considered incomplete and will only receive placement offers at schools with available space from 1 – 15 December 2022.

After applying, parents and guardians will begin receiving SMSs with placement offers during the placement period from 3 October 2022 – 31 October 2022.

These placement offers must be accepted within seven school days. Offers will be sent to the cellphone numbers that parents used when applying. Therefore, parents are urged to not change or lose their numbers after applying.

Placement offers are given based on the following criteria in order of priority:

1. Home address within the school’s feeder zone

2. Sibling / previous schools

3. Work address within the school’s feeder zone

4. Home address within a 30km radius

5. Home address beyond a 30km radius

The department has encouraged applicants who require assistance with applying or have any application-related enquiries to contact the call centre on 0800 000 789 or WhatsApp on 060 891 0361.

“We are proud that our innovative Online Admissions System has managed to successfully facilitate such a high number of applications. We have also noted a significantly low amount of complaints from applicants, which is testament to the System’s constant improvement. Parents are urged to wait for the placement period to begin on 3 October in order to receive placement offers,” said Gauteng Education MEC Mr Panyaza Lesufi.

Education