The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has called on parents in the province to accept or decline the school placement offers that will be presented to them this week.
Parents in Gauteng are required to submit online admission applications to the GDE for the placement of their children in Grade 1 or Grade 8. The 2024 admission application period closed on Friday, 21 July 2023.
The GDE received a staggering 700 000 admission applications through its online admissions system. The large volume of applications received by the department indicates that not all students will be able to attend their preferred schools.
Parents and guardians who submitted admission applications during the application period will begin receiving placement offers from Monday, 4 September 2023.
These placement offers will be sent to parents via SMS via the cellphone number the parent/guardian provided during the application. The GDE reminded parents that they have seven days to accept or decline a placement offer.
Placement offers will be issued until all applicant learners are placed. When an offer is made, you have 7 days to accept or decline the offer.
When parents receive a placement offer from the department, they must visit the Gauteng Online Admissions website to confirm the offer as final or to accept while keeping an eye out for other options.
The Department said if the SMS states that a child has been placed at a certain school, it is regarded as a successful final placement to the mentioned school. These parents are not required to visit the admissions website to accept the offer.
There will be no need for a parent/guardian to access the system to accept an offer in that regard because the child would be placed at the mentioned school to secure placement.
It's important to note that not all applicants will receive an SMS on the first day of the placement period.
Parents are reminded that when all schools apply to reach capacity, the system will auto-place the applicant in the school with the existing offer.
Objecting to The School Placement
Parents who are not satisfied with the school allocated to their child are afforded the option to raise objections. This objection process can be done online, where parents can object to a specific school placement.
If we gave you a school that you didn't apply to and you feel that don't want it, you must give us reasons during the objection process
In cases where an objection is rejected, parents can escalate the matter to the MEC (Member of Executive Council) for Education, who may reconsider the decision.
Alleviating Classroom Overcrowding
The GDE revealed that plans are in place to build additional classrooms and procure mobile units to accommodate the demand for placements at high-pressure schools in the province. Plans are also afoot to open 11 new schools in the 2024 school year to alleviate the pressure on existing schools.
