Gauteng MEC for Education and Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation Matome Chiloane has assured parents and guardians across the populous province that their children will be placed in schools for the 2025 academic year.
This assurance comes as the Gauteng Department of Education announced on Sunday that the 2025 online admissions application deadline for Grade 1 and Grade 8 had been extended to August 14, 2024.
This extension follows the State Information Technology Agency's (SITA) upgrade of its data centre electrical infrastructure, which necessitated a complete shutdown of all applications and equipment at the SITA Centurion Data Centre on Thursday.
As a result of this maintenance, the online admissions system in Gauteng was temporarily inaccessible to applicants. The restoration of all equipment and services at the data centre is scheduled for Sunday.
The online admissions application period was initially set to close on Monday, August 12, 2024.
“To accommodate those affected by this downtime, the application deadline for Grade 1 and Grade 8 has been extended to (Wednesday) August 14, 2024, ensuring that all parents and guardians have sufficient time to complete the application process. The online admissions system (www.gdeadmissions.gov.za) is expected to be accessible after August 11, 2024, once SITA has restored all equipment and services,” Chiloane said to reporters at a briefing in Kempton Park.
“We are excited to announce that as of Friday, 9 August 2024, a total of 768,666 Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications are submitted for admission to the 2025 academic year.”
The number of applications for Grade 1 stood at 325,712 while for Grade 8 learners the total was at 442,954 bringing the total to 768,666.
“The above reflects 11,991 more applications than the total of 757,075 applications received in 2023 for the 2024 academic year.
“Parents and guardians who have already applied to schools are reminded that certified copies of documents must be submitted to schools or uploaded by 12 noon on August 21, 2024. A certified copy of the proof of home address is an essential document as it is used to determine placement. Applicants who have not submitted or uploaded certified copies of proof of home address by August 21, 2024, will have incomplete applications and therefore, will not receive any placement offers,” said Chiloane.
The MEC warned that applicants who uploaded or submitted fraudulent or invalid documents will forfeit the opportunity to receive placement offers.
The provincial education department reiterated that certified copies of the following documents are required: South African parents should submit the parent identity document or or passport and the child’s birth certificate or passport. In terms of non-citizens, parents should submit their refugee permits, asylum seeker permits, permanent residence permit or study permits.
Parents are also required to submit proof of home address, proof of work address, the most recent Grade 7 school report for Grade 8 applicants, or the clinic card/immunisation report for Grade 1 applicants only.
Chiloane said the the following documents are accepted as proof of home address: for homeowners - municipal account documents not older than three months in the name of the applicant parent, bearing the full residential address.
For parents who are tenants, the education department accepts municipal account not older than three months in the name of the landlord (homeowner) bearing the full physical residential address and certified copies of the following documents: lease agreement signed by landlord and tenant, not older than three months bearing the full physical residential address, rental payment receipt with full physical residential address not older than three months, plus a statement of any account in the name of the applicant parent bearing the full physical residential address.
Chiloane said parents are reminded that the application process consists of five steps that must be completed in full.
“Where the five-step application process is not completed in full, the applications are considered incomplete, and will not be processed for placement.
“To date, a total of 96,411 incomplete applications are recorded. Of these, 29,174 parents registered parent and learner details which is step one to three, but failed to apply to any schools or upload/submit documents; and 67,237 parents registered parent and learner details and applied to schools (step one to four) but failed to submit/upload documents,” said Chiloane.
“The Department reiterates that to qualify for placement offers, parents with incomplete applications must complete their applications, must ensure that they apply to schools by August 12, 2024 and upload or submit documents by August 21, 2024,” said the MEC.
“If you're checking your application status and see 'missing documents,' it means you need to submit the required documents to complete your child's application. A 'verified' status indicates that the school has received your application and all necessary documents have been submitted and acknowledged. Make sure to follow up on any missing information to ensure your application is processed without delays,” said Chiloane.
Upon successful completion of an online application, and once all documents have been verified, parents are encouraged to wait to receive placement offers.
The placement period is scheduled to commence on September 16 2024, when the Gauteng Department of Education starts sending placement offers to parents and guardians with complete applications via SMS.
“Placement offers cannot be issued to all parents on the announced date, hence offers will be issued throughout the rest of the year until all learners have been placed. Parents with complete applications are advised to wait patiently for placement offers,” he said.
Parents/guardians are reminded that all placement is subject to the priority of placement criteria and availability of space (capacity) per school.
“Therefore, applicants who cannot be accommodated at the 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/guardians who are offered transfer placement at schools that they have not applied to have the option to accept or decline the placement offer,” said Chiloane.
Parents have seven days to accept or decline a transfer placement offer.
“If the transfer placement offer is declined, the parent may submit an objection within seven days. The department requires 14 days to respond to objections and provide an outcome to parents. Parents have seven days to accept or decline the objection outcome. If a parent declines the objection outcome, the parent may submit an appeal,” said Chiloane.
“The department requires 21 days to respond to appeals and provide an outcome to parents. The appeal outcome is final. Only applicants who could not be accommodated at schools applied to may submit an objection and appeal.”
Chiloane was confident that all learners seeking to attend school in the economic heartbeat province will be placed in schools.
“Your child will be placed. There is no child who will not get an offer to school. We will not place your child at an unreasonable area, far from you. We will always consider you home address and the school nearest.
“If schools are far, and there are challenges, we will also provide scholar transport, looking at different communities because there is a lot of movement within our province. New townships are established and we try our level best to support those communities to ensure that their children get to schools,” said Chiloane.
“Good luck to parents. From the 16th (August) we will be placing the learners and we are assuring them that all your kids will be placed in our schools. Have faith in every school that we place your child.”
IOL