Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane says they will start school placements for Grades 1 and 8 learners tomorrow. Chiloane was addressing members of the media on the online applications for the two grades for the 2025 academic year.
He says they will issue happy letters to parents and guardians who have completed their applications.
At the beginning of this year, over 30 000 learners missed their first day of school due to not having placements. Chiloane says those were late applications and has urged parents to apply on time.
“We have communicated. Now the 34 000 these are generally late applications. It’s not the 325 000. It’s those parents who have brought their kids from other provinces, or they did not apply, or they applied late. And the schools they wanted, they would not get.”
People applying as part of the Gauteng online school application process are advised not to use internet cafes.
Instead, they are urged to use government centres or schools where they can do this for free. The department’s acting Chief Director of School Management, Mmule Madonsela explains, “Parents avoid using internet cafes. Because you are paying for a service that we offer for free. If you walk into any of our centres or schools, you would be assisted for free. Secondly, internet cafes use portals that we do not know. You find that parents have applied but we do not have the application.”
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Education Department says it won’t be increasing the number of teachers next year due to budgetary constraints. But has committed to increasing the number of classes to deal with the growing influx of learners into Gauteng.
Head of department Rufus Mmutlana elaborates, “As a growing system, we want more posts, but given budget constraints, we cannot increase the number. Our fall position is just to ensure that we keep the number of posts we declared last year, the same in 2025.”
Gauteng Department of Education | School admissions update with MEC Matome Chiloane:
