Over 30 000 late school applicants placed by GDE, more still pending

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has allocated seats for children whose parents applied late for the 2025 school year.

Parents have been queuing at department offices throughout January as they wait patiently for their applications to be processed.

The centralised placement system opened for applications in July, with late applications and queries regarding school allocations still being processed.

Late applications pending

The GDE previously stated the cause of delays varied from incomplete applications to parents declining allocated schools and families transferring provinces or districts.

Those applying for grades 1 and 8 are being processed with the utmost urgency, with the GDE stating that as of 20 January, 16 255 late grade 1 and 14 243 grade 8 applications had been processed.  

“Late applicants are being assisted to submit applications and are placed immediately where space is available,” stated GDE spokesperson Steve Mabona.

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Other applications still pending are for the remaining 10 grades across all GDE schools.

“Inner-grade applicants include learners relocating to Gauteng from other provinces or transferring between districts within the province,” said Mabona.

“The majority of these applicants will be accommodated after the 10-day headcount process, and their details are being captured accordingly,” he explained.

Requests for alternatives

The online system received 344 890 applications for grades 1 and 8 since it opened last year.

The GDE said on Tuesday that 335 858 of those applications qualified as complete, with 99.97% of that figure having been successfully placed.

“The 19 032 incomplete applicants were able to select a school with available space for placement from 11 December 2024,” said Mabona.

However, applicants have declined the assigned schools or are requesting alternatives to the schools assigned to them.

“Our efforts to address all queries and placements at our offices are progressing efficiently, with noticeable reductions in the length of queues as we continue to assist all parents,” Mabona concluded.

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