Lesufi hopes to place 4,712 pupils in Gauteng schools by end of the day

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi hopes to place 4,712 pupils in schools by the end of today (Friday, 10 December 2021) for the 2022 academic year.

Online admissions for Grade 1 and Grade 8 in Gauteng began in September and the department received over 73,000 applications within four hours of going live online.

“By noon today (Friday), our statistics indicated that out of the 335,091 Grade 1 and 8 applications we received for the 2022 academic year, 278,029 had submitted their proof of residence, enabling the department to facilitate their placements,” said Lesufi.

“As such, 273,317 of these applicants have been placed.”

This leaves 4,712 remaining applicants whose placement is currently being facilitated. 

While every effort is being made to place all applicants, Lesufi said the following interventions were in place:

• We have identified schools in areas of high pressure across the province to allocate funds to build additional brick and mortar classrooms.
• The administrative process has been started to transfer a total of R240 million to build 229 classrooms in identified primary schools and 270 high schools within the next two weeks.
• All classrooms will have school furniture and related resources.
• In addition, a total of 132 mobile classrooms are being supplied to identified schools to augment classroom shortages and enhance space.

“From the initial number of applications we received, we identified 57,062 applicants who had not submitted or uploaded proof of residence during the allocated period.”

The system will grant these applicants an opportunity to upload this documentation for immediate placement between 16-31 December 2021.

“We remain solidly hopeful that in the next 24 hours, we will complete this mammoth task. It’s not easy, but we are spending sleepless nights to conclude this mandate.

“We fully understand your anxiety; however, we need to balance many factors,” said Lesufi.

Compiled by Narissa Subramoney

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