Gauteng’s race against time to place 19 000 extra kids in grade 1 and 8 Featured
- Written by Moses Moyo
The Gauteng Department of Education is grappling with an influx of late online and walk-in applications for grades one and eight, leaving 19 000 kids without a school to date.
The department provided an update on the process to place children across schools in the province, a week after schools officially opened last week.
As of yesterday, a total of 7 092 late online applications are yet to be closed, while 12 821 walk-in applications were recorded, despite grade one and eight applications only being accepted through the department’s Admissions website.
Combined, unplaced online and walk-in applications total 19 913.
“To date, 312 088 applications were processed online and 304 996 learners have been placed, of which 175 827 are for Grade one and 136 088 for Grade eight,” Gauteng MEC for Education, PanyazaLesufi said.
The Department is prioritising placement of pupils that applied online, while walk-ins will have to wait until that process is complete before they’re attended to.
“We reiterate our deep sense of empathy with the parents whose children are still not placed and commit to accelerate placement to at least eliminate the backlog of online applications. Unfortunately, for parents that have just walked into our operations centres, this may take a while,” Lesufi said.