Over 120 000 Gauteng school applicants unplaced but MEC urges parents to ‘stay calm’

No grade 1 or grade 8 will be without a classroom in 2025, says Gauteng education department Member of the Executive Council (MEC) Matome Chiloane.

The provincial department gave an update on the school placements for next year as well as their readiness to hold the 2024 matric exams.

Chiloane was confident the matric exams would go off without a hitch but had to be frank about the limitations of the department’s centralised placement system.

344,890 grade 1 and 8 applications received

The MEC reiterated the criteria for placements, stating that a home address within the feeder zone of the school was paramount.

Thereafter, learners with siblings in the school and their previous school were considered. Work address within the feeder zone and then home address within and beyond a 30km radius were the next considerations.

ALSO READ: GDE 2025 Grade 1 and 8 placements: Parents have 7 days to accept offers

As of 14 October, 199,492 have been placed, leaving 126,366 grade 1 and grade 8 applicants still needing a school for 2025.

46,386 applicants did not accept their offer within seven days and were thus auto-placed. 10,122 had provisionally accepted offers before being auto-placed after the seven-day window expired.

19,032 applications were deemed incomplete, and they will need to wait until 11 December when the window for late and incomplete applications opens.

No such thing as first first-choice

Chiloane revealed that 781 primary schools and 554 high schools received applications in excess of their capacity.

Those learners who didn’t make it into their school of choice would receive transfer offers which must be accepted or declined within seven days.

Parents may decline the offer, but any objections will receive a final non-negotiable placement within 14 days.

ALSO READ: Nearly 300K Grade 1 and 8 placement offers issued for Gauteng schools

Some parents have expressed their dissatisfaction at their allocated school but the MEC said the parents were the ones who directed the department.

“Our understanding is that the four or five schools chosen, these are the schools you say to us ‘I want my child to be at any of these schools and I’ll be happy’,” said Chiloane.

“This thing of saying ‘first choice’, it doesn’t exist to us. We are guided by your thoughts. They are chosen by you, we didn’t choose them,” he stated on Monday.

Uneven spread of schools

Chiloane blamed the uneven spread of schools on municipalities that did not increase the number of schools in line with property development.

“The issue is not…the capacity, the issue is the location of the schools which is a challenge. Town planners, they just approve, approve, approve. They don’t think about schools.

“They are approving rezoning; they are approving the building of these complexes but they don’t designate a space for schools,” said the MEC, singling out the Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni councils.

“The constitution requires us to offer a child of school-going age a space in a school and if we do that we would have done our work,” he concluded.

2024 matric exams

The writing of the 2024 national senior certificate exams will be done at 1,035 public and independent venues, featuring 189,693 matrics.

The department said it has improved its security measures from last year but stressed that any cheating or dubious behaviour was a criminal act.

“We have not had any leakages in Gauteng for quite a while and this is what we intend to continue,” said Chiloane.

ALSO READ: School services in jeopardy as Gauteng education seeks to save teaching jobs

The first session of marking will run from 14 to 25 November, with the main session featuring 10,712 markers running from 1 to 16 December.

Results are set to be released on 15 January, with matrics able to collect their certificates on 16 January.

Pleading for support and diligence, Chiloane had a request for parents.

“Don’t give kids extra chores that are not necessary. Let’s leave our kids just to really focus on this process. They need all the support they can get,” urged Chiloane.