The 2024 Gauteng school applications period ran from 15 June and closed on 21 July 2023. Parents were then given the deadline of 28 July to upload all outstanding documents in order for the department to process and verity the documents.
Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane said that 324 756 Grade 1 applications and 432 219 Grade 8 applications were received, bringing the total applications received to 757 075.
Chiloane said in a statement:
This success can be attributed to system improvements over the years, which is necessitated by continuous stakeholder engagements and technological advancements.
Learner placement offers
The GDE noted that parents and guardians who applied will start receiving placement offers from Monday, 4 September 2023, via SMS. Placement offers will be issued until all applicant learners are placed.
“We wish to announce that the 2024 Online Admissions Placement Period for Grade 1 and 8 will begin on 4 September 2023 and will continue throughout the remainder of the year until all learners are placed,” the GDE said.
Additionally, the department advised parents and guardians that if they so not receive an SMS, there is no need to panic as they are can also log on to the GDE website to check whether a placement offer was issued or not.
SMSes will be sent out on a continual basis from 4 September 2023 until all learners are placed. This means that not all applicants will receive an SMS on the first day of the placement period but must expect an SMS anytime from 4 September 2023 and throughout the course of the year.
Once parents and caregivers have received a placement offer, they will then have to log on to the GDE admissions website to accept the offer as final or accept while awaiting other offers within seven days.
Schools exceeding learner capacity
Meanwhile, the department has already identified a number of schools that received an overwhelming number of applications which exceeds the capacity of learners that they can afford to accommodate.
Chiloane said that about 292 primary schools were regarded as high-pressure schools and about 277 secondary schools were regarded as high-pressure schools.
The department has also urged parents and caregivers to b patience and understanding as their officials will work hard to assist everyone. They added,"Normally, high volumes of calls are received during the placement period, and all our offices experience a high number of walk-ins from parents/guardians."
Placement of unplaced learners
According to the department all learner placements are subject to the priority of placement criteria and availability of space per school.
Therefore, applicants that cannot be accommodated at schools they applied to due to the schools having reached capacity, will receive transfer offers of placement at the next closest school with available space.
Transfer offers are made only after confirmation that none of the schools which a parent applied to has available space. Parents and guardians who are offered placement at schools that they have not applied to have the option to accept or decline the placement offer.
Gauteng school late applications
Gauteng schools late applications for the 2024 academic year will open 11 December 2023 and parents will have until 21 December 2023 to submit their applications.
This will give parents who missed the initial application deadline 10 days to submit and apply for the 2024 school year.
Should parents and guardians require any further information or assistance they are welcome to interact with the departments call centre agents on 0800 000 789 or WhatsApp on 060 891 0361.
