GDE plans to be back online by Wednesday

The first day of the Gauteng Department of Education’s (GDE) online admission kicked off on a sour note after technical glitches forced the department to temporarily suspend the service.

Department’s spokesperson, Oupa Bodibe has highlighted that the department is currently attending to those technical challenges to ensure that the website is up and running by Wednesday, 13 April.

“The department appeals for patience while it is working on fixing the technical challenges and apologises for any inconveniences caused,” he said.

It was reported that the department received 600 applications per second, which seems to have been too much for the system to handle. The Gauteng Memeber of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education, Panyaza Lesufi has also mentioned that adding strain to their system was that they were receiving applications from other provinces.

Lesufi launched the province’s online learner-admission campaign on 10 April. According to Bodibe, the launch was done in order to encourage parents to register their children for the 2017 academic year, using a convenient online method. The admission period for 2017 officially kicked off on 11 April and is expected to end on 7 September.

“The province has phased out the manual admission process to make way for a modernised online process which is more convenient and easily accessible,” read a statement released by the department. It also stated that provision had been made to assist parents who do not have access to the internet. “This is in line with the provincial government’s commitment in undertaking radical and decisive action to modernise the manner in which government delivers services to its citizens.”