- Online admissions for learners from grade 1 to grade 8 have opened for public schools in Gauteng.
- The application process has been smoothed out compared to previous years but some parents are still reporting issues with the system.
- Applications will close on 14th July 2023, giving parents and guardians around a month’s time.
The weekend finally saw the province of Gauteng open its online school admissions portal for learners in grades 1 to 8.
Gauteng is South Africa’s most populous province, so local government has put significant effort into ensuring the process to register thousands of the province’s learners for the 2024 academic year is as seamless as possible.
Last year’s registrations saw some hiccups with the system, with over 1 000 learners not placed before the beginning of the academic year.
An improvement made this year, is that once parents or guardians have registered they will receive constant SMS communication from the department.
Applications opened on 15th June 2023, and are set to close on 14th July 2023, which means applicants have around a month’s time to ensure that their learners are enrolled.
How to register and enrol your learners for the 2024 Gauteng public school academic year:
Online applications can be completed in just five steps, according to the Gauteng Department of Education.
First thing first; head to the official admissions portal for the province, found here. Next, hit the yellow “register” button, which will take you to the registration page.
You will be asked to accept a PoPIA clearance. Do so.
Here you will have to input a series of personal details. You will be asked if you are a parent or guardian. If you are a citizen or not, and if you have a South African ID or other identification document like a passport.
You will have to then provide your date of birth, name, surname, gender, cellphone number, email address and then have to come up with a username for the admissions portal and a password.
Next, you will have to register the details for your home address. This is important because the province uses a “feeder” system introduced in 2019 which allows parents to apply for admissions within a 30km radius of their homes.
Then you can input the details of the learner you are applying for. Then you can select a minimum of three schools and a maximum of five schools to apply to.
After this process, you will have to either upload the necessary documentation on the portal or bring the documentation to the schools to which you have applied.
These documents deviate from province to province, but usually include:
- “Birth certificate or acceptable proof of birth date,
- Immunization card,
- Transfer card,
- Last report card.”
If you are not a South African citizen you will require:
- “Study/work permit,
- Temporary or permanent residence permit from the South African Department of Home Affairs,
- Evidence to show that there is an application for permission to stay in RSA.”
First-time admissions, such as for Grade R or Grade 1 will additionally require information on:
- “Where other siblings are attending,
- Nearest to parent’s work address,
- School of choice.”
Many parents or guardians on the Twitter account for the Gauteng education department have said that the new system is working as intended, but others have noted some issues when registering.
A few are encountering “DHA Validation” errors. This stems from the Department of Home Affairs and means that there has been a mismatch during the verification of your personal details.
This may be due to incorrectly spelt names or errors in your ID number. Make sure to go over your inputs again and keep trying.
