The Gauteng department of education has begun placing pupils whose parents have applied for their admission for 2025, but many parents are frustrated by system glitches.
On Monday, the department started the process of placing pupils at different schools for the 2025 academic year. Most of the placements are for grades 1 and 8.
Unhappy parents said they were eagerly waiting for their children to be placed because they had applied in time but were disappointed due to system errors.
Those who TimesLIVE spoke to complained about the same problem — an error message saying they had not submitted supporting documents even though they had.
Some parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, said they had spent the entire day trying to resolve the issue without success.
A parent from Pretoria West said the system was frustrating.
“We are not happy with the system. It is failing us, and now it says documentation not submitted,” she said.
She expressed her displeasure with the process.
“I applied the same week when they opened for online applications. It declined and they said I must update my proof of residence, and I did, and then it verified me. Before it closed, another school verified me and applications closed. When I checked before they started with the placements today, I saw it said documents not submitted. I asked them what was happening, and how I will be placed if there were no documents. They said to me that it’s because of my proof of residence,” she said.
She said even the school she applied to doesn’t know what is happening.
“I called the school I applied for and they said they are experiencing the same thing and they are trying to call the district and they are not answering. We don’t know what is going on, we only received an sms telling us that today they will be placing children at schools but there is nothing tangible.
“They are only saying they will assist us on December 11, so we don’t know what is going on and we don’t know the way forward. We don’t know which school they are placing us at. I applied at a school that is nearer to me to avoid spending money on transport, so it is stressing us,” she said.
She was concerned this might result in the department placing her children in a school further away their home meaning increased transport costs.
Some parents also voiced their frustration on social media.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one parent said: “The school that is closest to our house says ‘no documents submitted’. I uploaded documents on the first day of applications and I also submitted hard copies to the school. All documents were verified until the status changed on September 11”.
Another said: “My application is showing no document submitted at my first preference school, the one she is doing grade R at currently, but somehow doesn’t say the same for the other schools I applied for as backup. I submitted the docs on the website, how is that possible?”
On Sunday, Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane announced that the 2025 online admissions placement period for grades 1 and 8 in Gauteng would begin on Monday and continue throughout the remainder of the year until all pupils are placed.
According to the department, from Monday, parents and guardians with complete applications for grade 1 and/or grade 8 were expected to receive placement offers through SMS notifications sent to the cellphone numbers provided when applications were registered.
Within seven days of receiving a placement offer, parents or guardians must log on to www.gdeadmissions.gov.za using their login credentials to either accept a placement offer as final or provisionally accept an offer, which means the offer is accepted while awaiting other offers.
The department said when a parent accepts an offer from a school as final, the pupil is placed at that school.
“Placement offers that are accepted as final, cannot be reversed. Parents who applied to more than one school, are encouraged to accept offers from the maximum of five schools they selected during the application period. Accepting an offer will allow for more possible offers to choose from where available in your selection of schools while maintaining your placement. If your next placement offer is accepted while awaiting other offers, your previous offer will no longer be available. If no further placement offers are made to the parent within seven days, this means all other schools applied to have reached capacity and the learner is placed at the school where the last offer was accepted while awaiting further offers.”
This appeared to be the experience of most parents, some of whom vented their frustrations on the department’s social media pages.
The common challenge among all parents was the system not reflecting they had submitted documents like proof of residence, In its response, the department urged parents to keep checking the system, and offered no other alternative.
The department reported that the 2025 online admissions application period in the province ran successfully from July 11 to August 14 and that the system closed with a total of 828,364 applications — 353,409 for grade 1 and 474,955 for grade 8.
“These applications were submitted by 344,890 unique applicants (individual learners to be placed) From the 344,890 unique applicants, complete applications: 325 858 and incomplete applications: 19 032.”
The department said it can accommodate a total of 403,446 applicants in grades 1 and 8.
“334,890 applicants registered for grade 1 and 8 for 2025. Of these, 325,858 applicants submitted complete applications and will receive offers of placement from September 16. 19,032 applicants with incomplete applications will not receive offers of placement.”
The department said when the 325,858 applicants are placed, the remaining capacity will be 77,588. The remaining capacity will be used to accommodate incomplete and late applications in December.
TimesLIVE has reached out to the department for a response to reports of system glitches. This story will be updated with the department’s response once received.
Shonisani Tshikalange
www.timeslive.co.za
