The 2024 Gauteng school applications period ran from 15 June and closed on 21 July 2023. Parents in the province were then given the deadline of 28 July to upload all outstanding documents in order for the department to process and verity the documents and begin the placement of learners.
According to the Gauteng Education Department (GDE) the 2024 online admissions application had processed a total of 757 075 applications (Grade 1 had 324 756 and Grade 8 had 432 219 applications).
Parents and guardians who submitted admission applications during the application period will begin receiving placement offers from Monday, 4 September 2023.
GDE spokesperson Steve Mabona says that 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.
Mabona explains, “We are issuing SMSes on the 4th of September, but we are also saying parents should go back to the system and check the system of their applications.”
These placement offers will be sent to parents via SMS via the cellphone number the parent/guardian provided during the application. Once a placement offer is made, they will have 7 days to accept or decline the offer.
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.
How To Accept Learner Placement 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.
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.
However, if parents 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. Information about the objection process, as well as office locations and contact details, will be made available on all GDE social media platforms.
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.
The department says there were also 35 031 incomplete applications which will be eligible to apply for late placements in December.
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.
