On December 9, about 20 concerned parents stationed themselves outside the Department of Education from 7am.
Frieda Shongwe, a frustrated parent, explained they are there due to the fact that all of them applied in June for their children to go to selected schools.
“We are doing this today because we are frustrated about the situation with regards to placement of our children in schools next year.
“They are not placing our children where we wanted them to go and for where we applied and they keep telling us to apply for schools close to the locations.
“Our children started in Grade One to attend schools that do English and Afrikaans and now they want us to change that and put our children in schools to learn only the African language of which they have never done before.”
According to most of the parents, when they approached the schools regarding the situation at hand, the schools told them to go to the district, but when they come to the district, they are told to speak to the schools.
“The schools we applied at need to take our children, this isn’t fair or right,” said Frieda.
“None of us know what to do and we are not happy with this situation.”
Another concerned parent, Innocentia Ngcobo, said she applied for her child to go to a select number of schools in June.
“When I applied in June, I got responses back from all the schools saying they had successfully received the applications.
“When we call the schools they tell us yes, there is space.
“Now I call the Department of Education and they don’t answer their phones.
I log onto the system and it tells me still in process.
“So they just place our children where ever they want because they say the schools are full but the schools tell us they are not or the department tells me they don’t have my child’s documents.”
Delron Thako was there on the day on behalf of his younger sister.
“I am so frustrated, they are not assisting us with anything.
“I have been here since 7am and no reasonable answers have been given to us (At the time of this interview it was 11am.)
“They have placed my younger sister at a school that is almost 20km from where we live. They keep telling us that all the schools we applied for are full, but it’s not because I have heard other parents here today saying their children have been placed in the schools we applied for.”
Steve Mabona, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Education, responded with the following:
“We wish to update parents about the online 2021 admissions placement process for Grades One and Eight, which started on October 1 and ended on November 30.
“The online admissions application period commenced on June 25 and ended on July 25 where parents applied for admission to schools and uploaded online or submitted documents to schools within seven days.
“Accordingly, parents started receiving offers of placement on October 1 and offers not accepted were forfeited after seven school days of receipt.
“Based on the capacity of each school to accommodate learners, offers of placement were released to qualifying applicants as per admissions regulations.
“We can confidently inform that a total of 181 119 (81.48 per cent) applicants are placed to date.
“Taking in cognisance that this was done under the strain of the pandemic and overwhelming challenges, this is a proud moment.”
Breakdown of statistics in the province:
• Grade One had 105 326 applicants, of which 88 503 were placed and 18 823 not.
• Grade Eight had 116 949 applicants, of which 92 616 were placed and 24 333 not.
“During the placement period, priority was given to applicants who live within the school feeder zones.
“The second priority is siblings and applicants that are currently in Grade Seven at a neighbouring school.
“Applicants of parents who work close to the school are placed only if the school has space available after accommodating applicants within the school feeder zone.
“Applicants who live within 30kms of the school and beyond 30kms of the school are accommodated last.”
Currently, 280 schools (144 primary schools and 136 high schools) have reached full capacity and cannot accommodate any more placements.
“The department notes with appreciation that principals of schools in high pressure areas have voluntarily expanded their capacities to accept a total of 2 117 additional learners combined.
“It must be noted that 23 per cent of learners that were not accommodated at schools that parents applied to are being transferred to schools with available space.
“To date, a total of 17 902 learners were transferred to schools with available space.
“Of these, 2 210 accepted the transfer placement and 438 objected.
“The unplaced applicants and including those who have been transferred and accepted will on December 7 to 11 be given an opportunity to choose their preferred schools from a list with available spaces on their profiles.”
Parents will have to login onto gdeadmissions.gov.za using their credentials and on the landing page would be required to click the icon labelled list of school for with available space.
“We must emphasize that schools that are full will not appear on the list.
“The objections will be processed from December 7 and parents who decline placement offers will be afforded an opportunity to submit an objection within seven days of receiving an offer.
“Dissatisfaction with the objection result may be registered by lodging an appeal.
“Both the objection and appeal submitted will be responded to within 14 days.
“An objection or appeal against placement at a school that the parent applied to will not be accepted.”
• The system will from December 16 to December 21 be open for the 33 460 applicants who did not submit documents during the application period.
• These applicants must upload documents and then choose a school from the list of available schools.
• The documents will be auto verified and they will receive a SMS confirming placement.
• Parents who have not yet applied must note the Online Admissions System is scheduled to open for late applications on December 22 and close on January 22.
• Between January 25 and 29, schools will be receiving and finalising placement of parents that received SMS confirming such.
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