Johannesburg – The Gauteng Department of Education said on Monday that 108,661 grade one and 84,442 grade eight learners had already been successfully placed at various schools for the 2018 academic year through the department's online registration process.
“The department is happy with the progress of placing learners whose parents applied online for Grades 1 and 8 for the 2018 school year. A big thanks goes to all the parents that have applied and complied with all the processes,” Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said.
“To date, the Gauteng Department of education has processed close to 67% or 193,103 of 285,834 applications for placement.”
Lesufi said it was concerning that 19,858 applicants had not yet confirmed their offers of placement, which would have increased the number of placements to 212,961, or 74%, if they had.
“The lack of response from parents is delaying the placement process. Once again, parents are urged to accept offers of placement from schools with available space. Parents who do not confirm offers of placement will lose the space as the offer will be extended to the next available prospective learner.”
The department said that 72,873 applicants were currently being processed and that the department would conclude the placements on 20 October 2017.
“A number of our schools are over-subscribed and cannot accept any more learners. We plead with parents to accept alternative offers of placement.
“Parents who have not yet submitted certified copies of the required documents, should do so from 27 to 29 September 2017, when schools will be updating the status of documents on the Admissions Online Application.”
They added that all applicants who had not yet applied for Admission for 2018 would be provided an opportunity to make applications when the Admissions Online Application opened from 23 October 2017 to 10 November 2017.