As we go into the weekend the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has revealed that its online school admissions system is nearing a milestone of 600 000 applicants.
The system is used to capture details of students attending grade one or grade eight in 2023 to place them into public schools for the upcoming year.
“As of Friday, 5 August 2022, GDE Online Admissions System recorded a total of 250 463 applications made for Grade 1 and 345 456 applications made for Grade 8. This brings the grand total of applications made to 595 919,” reads an announcement from the department.
This update on the number of applicants comes after a rather astonishing 165 000 was reported on the very first day that the school admissions portal opened. This was on 22nd July so it seems that the call from the GDE to apply as soon as possible was headed by many.
That large influx did cause some problems on the day which were soon dealt with and it seems that proceedings have been relatively predictable since then. This follows as the GDE made upgrades to the portal to support the traffic.
“The Online Admissions System keeps improving and processing a large number of applications each year, and we’re very proud of that. The existence of this System has saved many parents a lot of time and resources required when applying for their children. In the past, parents needed to travel and wait tong queues at schools to apply. Now, with the Online Admissions System, parents merely use their smartphone or computer wherever they are to apply for their children in under 20 minutes,” writes Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng Education MEC.
Parents and caregivers with children going into grade one or grade eight next year are encouraged to complete the admission process online as soon as possible starting on the GDE website here.
More stories from Hypertext on the 2023 Gauteng grade one and grade eight online admissions:
- Countdown to closure at two weeks
- First open day brings in 165K applicants
- Grade R, Grade 2-7 and Grade 9-12 applications must be done in person
- Working cell number crucial for grade 1 & 8 online applications.
- Gauteng parents urged to get documents.
- GDE lays out 5 steps for Grade 1 & 8 online admissions.
- Online portal has apparently been upgraded.
