The Gauteng Basic Education Department (GDE) will reopen its system for late online applications for Grade 1 and 8 as schools open for the 2020 academic year. According to Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng Education MEC “The department will open the system on 15 January 2020 for late online applications, only the schools with capacity will be availed in the system during this period. Applicants will provisionally be placed until they submit documents to the school accordingly,” .
According to the department, there is still a total of 912 primary schools and 374 high schools with space available for late applications. Lesufi also advised parents who have not submitted documents to visit districts from the 15th to the 24th for placements. Districts will be responsible to send the parents to identified schools with available space to submit documents.
The MEC said the challenge for the department is capacity, with parents reluctant to accept offered spaces for different reasons. On the other hand, to reduce capacity challenges, the GDE is in the final stages of finalizing a partnership with Curro to accommodate learners at their schools.