The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has placed more than 260,000 learners at schools around the province. These learners will be starting Grade 1 and Grade 8 during the 2023 school year after their parents and guardians used the Gauteng Online Admissions system.
As of 30 November 2022, the GDE placed a total of 135,465 Grade 1 learners and 132,727 Grade 8 learners at schools in the province in preparation for the 2023 school year.
However, 31,549 learners have not yet been placed. The GDE had initially planned to finalise all online admission applications submitted on time by 30 November 2022 but were unable to achieve this.
The department apologised to parents for any inconvenience this may cause but assured them that they are working tirelessly to place all the learners who have not yet been placed.
This is to assure parents that the placement process will continue until all unplaced learners are placed accordingly.
Applicants who failed to provide their proof of address during the application period will be placed from 1 December 2022. This will see the department provide placement offers to all applicants at schools with available space.
The GDE revealed the capacity at their high pressure schools remains a challenge. The applications received by high pressure schools exceed the available space in their classrooms. In an effort to mitigate this, the department will build additional classrooms at these schools.
“We have therefore decided to increase capacity at all identified high pressure schools by providing mobile units that will be delivered before the commencement of the 2023 academic year” said the GDE.
Parents and guardians who failed to apply during the original online admissions application period will be given the opportunity to submit placement applications from 20 December 2022 until 20 January 2023.
These parents will be required to submit all supporting documents physically at the schools they applied to from 9 January 2023 to finalise the placement.
