Johannesburg - The Gauteng Education Department has announced that a total of 300 907 Grade 1 and 8 online admissions applications have been successfully processed.
As of noon on Monday, the GDE online admissions system had recorded a total of 131 294 applications made for Grade 1 and 169 613 applications made for Grade 8.
The application process began last Thursday, June 15, and is set to conclude on July 14.
Despite seeing a decrease in applications on the opening day compared with applications for 2023, when the province recorded more than 165 000 applications made in the same period, the application process was smooth sailing.
Explaining the decrease in applications, the department said it may be due to the long weekend.
“We believe this decrease may be due to this year's application period occurring at the start of the long weekend. Within the first hour of opening the system, a whopping 60 000 applications were received.
“We have acknowledged a challenge faced by some applicants when entering their ID numbers into the system.”
The department added that it also detected an issue in which some applicants who were applying for Grade 8 could not enter their previous schools on the system.
“The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) verification mechanism used on the online admissions was unable to process certain ID numbers. However, this was effectively resolved within a few minutes as we discovered applicants only had to refresh their browsers and proceed to apply successfully.
“This issue did not affect all Grade 1 and 8 applicants; however, it was also resolved instantly, and all previous schools are now appearing in the system for Grade 8 applicants.
“We are proud of the smooth start to the application period, and we are happy at the turnout of parents who used our system and succeeded in their applications. Many parents reached out to share their smooth experience utilising the system. Other parents also expressed that the system is faster than the previous years,” said Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane.
Parents and guardians are urged to either upload certified copies of the required documents onto the department’s system or submit them at the schools they applied to within seven school days.
The department also explained that applicants must provide one reliable and correct cellphone number when registering to receive important SMS notifications and updates regarding their application.
The Star