DEADLINE TO FINALISE SCHOOL PLACEMENTS EXTENDED TO END OF THE MONTH

The number of learners placed in Gauteng schools has increased to 241 806

The Gauteng Department Education has now increased the number of learners placed to 241 806, which represents 85.5% of total applications received.

Of the number placed, 131 383 were placed in Grade 1 and 110 423 were placed in Grade 8. Total applications received is 310 350.

The deadline to finalise all placements has been extended to 30 November 2019.

Notwithstanding the progress to place learners, the Department is aware of 34 553 or 12.2% of parents that have not yet received an offer of placement or whose application status has been pending for a while.

The Department sincerely apologises and undertakes to place these learners. Parents facing this situation will receive SMS offers of placement. Parents are urged to either confirm or decline the offer within seven days of receiving the offer. Otherwise the offer will be forfeited.

Places in Gauteng schools are in demand due to the constant annual increase in learner numbers. The Department is administering the 2020 Admission process under the new Regulations and Feeder Zones Policy.

A parent can apply at any school BUT placement depends ultimately on available space & capacity of the school. Capacity of the school is a function of the size of the school and the number of current Grades 1 and 8 learners that have been retained or do not pass to the higher grades.

Furthermore, placement in terms of the revised regulations follows this order of priority:

1.Applicants with home address closest to the school within the feeder zone

2.If the school still has space, applicants with siblings are placed. If there is no space, siblings are placed at a school with available space within the feeder zone.

3.After Criteria 1 and 2 are exhausted, applicant with work address within the feeder zone are placed, if the school still has space. If not, the learners will be placed where there is space available.

4.Still, subject to space availability, learners whose parents live within the 30km radius of school, are placed.

5.Finally, learners whose parents live beyond the 30km radius of the school are placed, if the school has space.

Some schools and regions are defined as higher pressure due to the fact that they reached their capacity when the placement period started. As of the 4 November 2019, the number of schools that have reached their capacity is 391.

It should be noted that despite the Department’s efforts to communicate timeously, there is still a problem that some parents did not respond to offers of placement or do not/have not submitted documents.

To date, 6 428 parents have not responded to the requirement to respond to offers of placement within seven days. The number of parents that have not submitted or do not have documents are 27 563.

A parent that still has admission related queries can contact the Department through the following channels:

Phone the Call Centre on 0800 000 789.

Send an email to gdeinfo@gauteng.gov.za

Visit the nearest district admission centre.

The deadline to finalise all #GDEPlacements has been extended to 30 November 2019. #2020GPOnlineAdmissions

“I am confident, that the Department will and can deal with the backlog. Once more we apologise for the inconvenience caused to parents. Parents that have used the system are also recognized as our warriors for change and we are eternally indebted for their support and positive response. Your concerns and feedback is highly appreciated and will be used to improve the online system. – MEC Panyaza Lesufi