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

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) will begin sending out 2025 school placement offers today.

Parents who have applied for grade 1 and grade 8 placements have selected their preferred schools and are now anxiously awaiting the results.

The GDE received 157,406 unique applications for grade 1 placements and have 165,785 available seats.

For grade 8, the GDE has 186,902 available seats and received a total of 179,105 applications.

Seven days to accept

GDE MEC Matome Chiloane outlined the procedures for the 2025 placement window at a presentation at Bryanston High School on Sunday.

The placement window will be open from September 16 until every prospective pupil has been allocated a seat, even if the process extends into 2025.

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Parents who have submitted complete applications will receive placement offers via text message on the cellphone number provided on the application.

They must then log onto the GDE admissions website to confirm if they intend to accept the offer.

Parents can either confirm their absolute acceptance of the offer or provisionally accept the offer should they wish to wait for an offer from one of their preferred choices.

“Applicants who do not accept placement offers within seven school days will be auto-placed at the school that made an offer of placement,” confirmed Chiloane.

Applications for in-demand schools

The criteria for placement is based on five factors in order of priority:

• Home address within the school’s feeder zone
• The school attended by siblings and their previous school
• The parent’s work address with the school’s feeder zone
• Nearest school within 30km of home address
• Nearest school outside a 30km radius of the applicant’s home address

Several of the GDE’s schools are considered high-pressure institutions, with some receiving multiple times the number of applicants compared to the school’s capacity.

One example is Laerskool Akasia, which has a capacity of 240 pupils but received 1,475 applications.

For Grade 8, Boksburg and Northcliff High Schools each have a capacity of roughly 280 students but received 2,551 and 2,171 applications, respectively.

“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,” confirmed Chiloane.

Objections to placements

Should a parent get an offer from a school they did not apply for, they are allowed to decline the offer.

Should they wish to submit a formal objection against the school allocated to them, they must complete the objection form on the admissions portal.

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Objections must be submitted within seven days of receiving the placement offer. However, should that school be among the options initially selected by the parent, the objection will not be considered.

The objection will be adjudicated with 14 days and should the parent still not be satisfied, they may submit an appeal.

An appeal must also be submitted within seven days of the objection. This process will take 14 to 21 days and the outcome is final.

Parents may accept, object, appeal or seek any other assistance at any of the GDE’s district offices.