Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane has announced that the application period for Grades 1 and 8 is open on 15 June 2023 and will remain open until 14 July 2023.
All parents and guardians are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the online application process before they start with their school admissions application, as well as to apply early.
Those parents and/or guardians who managed to apply on time are now attempting to register their children at a school they have been accepted and confirmed attendance for, but many have found the task to be challenging.
There have been repeated issues with system crashes and parents/guardians being unable to login, in recent years.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has attributed this yearly challenge to the system becoming backlogged due to the influx of applications received each other.
For this current application period, Chiloane says the process is "so far, so good."
This year, officially, we [the GDE] can announce that there was no glitches at all since the system went live at eight o'clock [on 15 June] until now.
Chiloane added that thus far, the GDE has received more than 160 000 applications, which is likely to increase.
Several parents expressed their concerns earlier this year (2023), when the system failed to allocate placements for some learners in a timely manner for the current academic period.
Last year, when the 2023 school applications were opened, the process was not smooth-sailing for parents and/or guardians applying on behalf of their children.
These frustrations are not a new occurrence amongst parents, as complaints have arisen every year since the introduction of the online application platform/system, even if they've applied on time along with all the necessary documents.
GED Spokesperson, Steve Mabona, says the Gauteng province has a capacity problem.
Many parents would not be in a position to afford private and independent schooling, so that compounded to our challenge of capacity. But we've been working very hard to make sure that we prepare for closing the gap, in terms of capacity.
Mabona added that each year, the Department goes back and improves the online system, in order to work out the kinks that are causing so much frustration amongst applicants.
The system has been very good; I think this year, the changes and improvements that we made, were really bad fruit. We are quite happy today.
In regards to the system becoming backlogged as applications roll-in, Chiloane says that the GDE anticipates no new challenges in the days to come.
Chiloane has urged that parents/guardians use the month-long application period to submit their child's details on time, as late applications make the process even more challenging and often leads to unwanted results, such as learners being placed in schools that were not their first choice.
To access the admissions online application system, parents will need to visit the official Gauteng Department of Education Admissions website via www.gdeadmissions.gov.za.
This can be done on any smartphone or computer device. Once you have accessed the admissions homepage, you need to register a profile to begin the five-step application process.
