Gauteng launches 2025 online application portal for grade 1 and 8

Gauteng

Cape Town — Gauteng MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane, has officially opened the online application portal for Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for 2025.

Chiloane was at the Diepsloot Youth Centre on Thursday morning for the official opening and was on hand to help parents with their applications.

The department gave live updates on X and reported that 33 000 applications were successfully recorded within 30 minutes of the opening at 8 am. That number grew to 110 000 by 9:50 am.

“Parents were eager, they were ready, on their laptops and computers across the province, by the end of the day we’re sitting with 150 000 or so applications, if not more,” he said.

He encouraged more parents to go to the walk-in centres to use the application portal and he expected more parents to make use of the centres later in the day, but also said they could do it from their homes or offices. The applications close on 12 August at midnight

According to The Citizen, Chiloane explained some of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to making applications and he warned against parents uploading fraudulent documents when sending applications for their children.

He said it was important for parents to provide the correct details and not to select only one school in their applications.

“If you upload fraudulent documents, we will not be able to place your child. The system can pick up on inconsistencies,” he warned.

“When you choose a school in your application, don’t say to us ‘I choose this one first because I want it, I just included the other ones because they’re around’,” he said.

“We move from a point that any of the five is your preferred school. Don’t put one school because if your child doesn’t get placed in that school, we will have a problem. You’re putting your child at a disadvantage. Choose five schools, a minimum of three,” he added.

He said parents have seven days to upload the relevant documents from the day they have created their profile, and failure to do so will push parents down the priority list.

“If the system gives you a spot within these seven days and you don’t upload the documents, it automatically pushes you down and prioritises one who has uploaded the documents,” said Chiloane.

The department has 80 walk-in centres that parents can use to send their applications. This will help avoid dodgy internet cafes that put people at risk of data theft.

Among the required documents include Parent IDs or Passports, the child’s birth certificate, proof of home and work address and the latest school report. All documents must be certified.

Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Picture: X/@EducationGP1

For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com

Compiled by Matthew Petersen

Article written by