Joburg - The Gauteng Department of Education had a low turn-out of parents and guardians registering for Online Admissions for Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners compared with last year.
This was revealed by the MEC for Education Matome Chiloane after he officially marked the start of the 2024 Online Admissions application at Winterveldt Multipurpose Hall in Tshwane on Thursday..
Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said as of Thursday noon, 161 407 Grade 1 and Grade 8 had successfully been processed by the Online Admissions system, reflecting a slight decrease compared with 2023 where the department recorded over 165 000 applications during the same period.
“We believe this decrease may be due to this year’s application period occurring during the start of the long weekend,” Mabona said.
He said within the first hour of opening the system, a whopping 60 000 applications were received.
“We have acknowledged a challenge faced by some applicants when entering their ID numbers onto the system. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) verification mechanism used on the Online Admissions was unable to process certain ID numbers. However, this was effectively resolved within a few minutes as we discovered applicants only had to refresh their browsers and proceed to apply successfully.
“We also noticed an issue in which some applicants who were applying for Grade 8 could not enter their previous schools on the system. This issue did not affect all Grade 1 and 8 applicants. However, it was also resolved instantly and all previous schools are now appearing on the system for Grade 8 applicants,” Mabona said.
He said the 2024 Online Admissions applications would continue until July 14 and urged parents and guardians to either upload the certified copies of the required documents onto their system, or submit them at the schools they applied to within seven days.
“Parents are also encouraged to visit our District Offices and 80 decentralised walk-in centres to be assisted with applying. For further assistance, applicants can call the GDE’s Contact Centre 0800 000 789 or send a message on our WhatsApp060891 0361.
Commenting after the first day, Chiloane said: “We are proud of the smooth start to the application period, and we are happy at the turnout of parents who used our system and succeeded in their applications. Many parents reached out to share their smooth experience when using the system. Other parents also expressed that the system is faster than the previous years,” Chiloane remarked