With the Gauteng 2023 Admissions for Grade 1 and 8 currently underway, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has reported an update on the number of applications that have been processed so far.
Earlier this year Gauteng Education MEC, Panyza Lesufi announced that the department will no longer be opening separate admission application dates for Grades 1 and 8. Instead, parents are required to apply for admission into both grades during the same window period.
Before the 2023 online admissions opened, the department assured parents that new enhancements to the system were made and that these changes would prove to make the process run smoothly, and efficiently, but essentially alleviate any challenges that were faced in the past.
Steve Mabona, GDE Spokesperson said:
“The number of callers has been decreased, and we are talking now just less than 350 calls per hour that we received so far, so it is an indication that parents are navigating easily in the system, and we have processed over 400,000 applications so far.”
Mabona added that although the records are showing large numbers of processed applications, there are still over 100,000 applications outstanding.
The department continues to call on these parents that have not yet applied to do so before midnight on 18 August 2023 when applications close. They are encouraging parents to upload and submit the necessary documentation on time as they are crucial for when learners are placed and if schools do not receive the documents their children will not be placed.
Although there were a few snags in the system on the first day when applications opened they have since been resolved and parents should be able to navigate the system smoothly.
One of the new enhancements that were made to the system is the enhanced (One Time Pin) OTP interface. Any interaction that parents have with the system will direct them to the OTP.
“Gone are the days where a parent will say they made a mistake and didn’t want to delete an application, with the new system it will ask you if are you sure you want to delete before the application is deleted then an OTP will be sent to you,” said Mabona.
Placement for admission into schools is set to commence on 2 October until the end of November 2023, so parents should expect communication from schools during this period.
Should parents not receive communication during this time, their children might be waitlisted due to incomplete applications and therefore will only receive placement at available schools between 1-15 December 2023.