Johannesburg — The Gauteng Education Department has revealed that a little over 32 000 pupils for grades 1 and 8 have not been allocated to a spot for the 2024 academic year.
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane delivered an update on learner placements, and said that said the Education Department will be opening late applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils from 18 December 2023 to 31 January 2024, in an attempt to fill all the available school slots for the 2024 academic year.
Chiloane said the extension of the application deadline was to give parents an opportunity to place their child in a school. He added that the Department would show the parents availability’s instead of giving them the luxury to choose their own spots.
[WATCH]: Gauteng Education MEC @matomekopano announced that late applications for Grade 1 & Grade 8 will open on 18 December 2023 until 31 January 2023.#2024OnlineAdmissionsGP#GrowingGautengTogether pic.twitter.com/k3HNdUoyvM
— Gauteng Department of Education (@EducationGP1) December 10, 2023
He revealed that 32 795 out 0f 300 000 pupils who applied for spots at school for 2024, have still not been placed in a school yet, with various reasons for the placement backlog, EWN reported.
“These are parents who’ve had incomplete applications, they didn’t submit all the required documents including home address and so forth,” he said.
To date, 273 186 pupils have completed applications and been placed in schools across Gauteng, adding that they have filled over 99% of slots for students already.
“From the computer applications we have managed to place 99.8% of them, so we are left with just a few – 0.2% which is quite significant. We are in a better state than we have ever been since we started with online admission. We are left with a small number.”
Chiloane was adamant that by 17 January 2024, all learners would be placed in classrooms, despite the extended application date.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
