‘It’s offline’: Technical issues experienced by some on first day of Gauteng school enrolments

While the first day of enrolment for grade 1 and grade 8 in Gauteng was largely stress-free for parents, there have been several reports of the system crashing.

The Gauteng Department of Education opened school applications on Thursday for the 2025 academic year. The process is set to run until 12 August at midnight.

In previous years, parents have faced numerous hurdles when trying to secure a spot for their children in the province’s public schools. From technical glitches to long queues and missing documents, the enrolment process has previously been a stressful and frustrating experience for many.

The Citizen‘s staff members successfully applied for both grade eight and grade one on Thursday placements without encountering any issues, with the entire process taking approximately five to 10 minutes to complete.

Gauteng’s MEC for Education, Sport, Arts, Culture & Recreation, Matome Chiloane, said more than 229 000 grade 1 and grade 8 applications were processed on the first day.

“We are proud of this monumental achievement, processing such a high number of applications on the first day. This success reflects the improvements made to the system, which operated smoothly, and the demand for the quality education provided at Gauteng public schools,” said Chiloane.

“We are delighted by the positive feedback from parents who completed their applications without issues and reassure others not to panic as the system will be open until 12 August.”

However, some took to social media to complain of the system “crashing” and being “offline”.

Among the other issues raised were passwords not resetting, profiles not being registered, and parents not being able to select schools.

“Same issues every year for nine years now,” said one X user.

“Dear education department, please look into the website. We can’t log in, even after resetting passwords. It’s been frustrating from 8am. The system is not working for us. Please intervene,” added another.

Attempts to contact the department for comment on the issues raised were unsuccessful at the time of publishing, any update will be included once received.

There were reports of the system working better from 8:30am, but this still raised concerns from parents.

“It started working at 8:30 yet we are told that the system is 100% in working order. How should we be confident that our children are going to be placed in the correct schools?”

Application process not running smoothly

Gauteng MEC for education Matome Chiloane on Wednesday said measures had been put in place to ensure a smoother process this year.

According to the Gauteng Department of Education admissions site, parents can apply online and upload required documents immediately, and those who encounter difficulties can opt to hand-deliver documents to schools.

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“Documents not uploaded may be hand delivered to schools. All documents must be uploaded or submitted within seven days of submitting an application.”

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Previous placement glitches

Earlier this year the online application system was blamed for thousands of children missing out on the first weeks of school.

Disgruntled parents eventually resorted to visiting the district offices in Ekurhuleni in large numbers, hoping to get placements for their children.

The online applications system, meant to ease the placement of pupils in Gauteng schools, was blamed for the more than 34 000 children who were not placed.

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Parents wanted the new system to be scrapped saying it is not working for them and their unregistered children.

Among the challenges was that capacity had been reached in most high schools. Schools were asked to take in extra pupils and assemble temporary classrooms.

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Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane at the time vowed on Jacaranda FM that “no child will be left behind”.

According to Chiloane, the department has procedures and catch-up programmes to help pupils who register late.

Chiloane said because placement problems had been a regular problem, they knew how to bring the late students up to speed with their peers.