In just 14 days the Gauteng Department of Education’s online applications for Grades 1 and 8 for the 2020 academic year will go live. Parents and guardians applying on behalf of learners will have from 13 May 2019 until midnight 15 July 2019 to submit applications.

“Parents are urged to apply online and on time. Applying on time makes it possible to obtain space in a public school,” Panyaza Lesufi, MEC of Education said.

The applications will be in line with the amended admissions regulations, terms and conditions and school feeder zones. The amendments are a product of a Constitutional Court judgment which in 2016 ordered the MEC to determine feeder zones within the province.

Explaining the application process, Lesufi said that “when applying online, parents have a choice to submit a maximum of five applications, either using a home address, an applicant’s sibling who attends the school being applied to, work address of either one of the parents, if the applicant lives within a 30km radius and if the applicant lives beyond a 30km radius”.

Before the Constitutional Court judgment, learners had to live within a 5km radius of the school they were applying to and for many parents this meant forging a residential address to secure admission for the child to former model-C schools, which are perceived as better.

“Parents are urged to use all five options because if you have five options it allows us to play along if one or two options fail,” Lesufi said.

In the past, there have been issues around the system failing as a result of lacking capacity to accommodate multiple users simultaneously.

“The department is pleased to announce that the capacity of the admissions online application system has been increased to accommodate 50,000 simultaneous users,” said Lesufi. “This is an increase from 40,000, which parents complained about”.

The placement process, on the other hand, will be conducted on a first-come-first-served basis while prioritising the five options parents can use to apply.

Lesufi said “parents should understand that living closer to the school does not entitle a person to automatic admission. Placement will depend on the time the application was made and availability of space in the school”.

The department also said parents can visit the nearest public school, district admissions centres, community libraries and community centres for admissions, especially for those parents who cannot access the internet in their households. DM