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The Gauteng department of education has released about 300,000 placement offers for children entering grade 1 and grade 8 in 2027. Parents have seven days to accept the offers as the province works to accommodate hundreds of thousands of pupils.
The department began releasing offers at 4pm on Thursday, with 130,233 applicants having accepted their offers by Friday.
Gauteng education MEC Lebogang Maile urged parents to check their messages and online application profiles regularly and accept offers within the stipulated period.
The placement process follows high demand for school places, with the department receiving 781,476 applications during the 2027 online admissions period, which closed on September 4.
The applications were submitted for 346,556 individual pupils, including 169,221 prospective grade 1 pupils and 177,335 prospective grade 8 pupils.
The department said the number of applications reflected the public’s confidence in the provincial education system, but acknowledged that the demand continued to put pressure on available classrooms and school infrastructure.
Gauteng faces an infrastructure backlog, particularly in communities experiencing rapid population growth and urbanisation. This has contributed to overcrowding at some schools and a shortage of places in certain areas.
The department said it is committed to reducing the backlog through the construction of new schools, expanding existing facilities and using public-private partnerships to speed up infrastructure delivery.
However, Maile acknowledged that not every pupil would get a place at their first-choice school.
Certain schools had received far more applications than they could accommodate, with more than 20 secondary schools receiving more than 1,800 applications for grade 8.
“Unfortunately, not every learner will be placed at the school identified as their first choice,” said Maile.
Where a preferred school has reached capacity, the department will consider placing pupils at alternative schools with available space, taking the relevant admission criteria into account.
The department said parents should understand that offers would not be released to everyone at the same time. Applications were being processed as verification was completed and school capacity confirmed.
Parents who had not received an offer yet should therefore not assume that their applications have been unsuccessful.
The department also warned that incomplete applications could delay placement. Some parents had failed to submit supporting documents, including valid proof of residential or work addresses and identity documents.
Affected parents were encouraged to contact their relevant district offices to check the status of their applications and get assistance.
Parents will receive placement notifications by SMS using the cellphone numbers provided during the application process. They can also log into their profiles on the online admissions system to check for offers.
Once an offer is received, parents must log into the Gauteng online admissions system within seven days and choose whether to accept it as final or provisionally.
Accepting an offer as final confirms the pupil’s place at that school and cannot be reversed through the ordinary acceptance process.
A provisional acceptance allows parents to await possible offers from other schools.
The department said parents who were unhappy with a placement decision could object or appeal through the prescribed admissions process.
Parents were urged to use the official process rather than disrupt schools or district offices.
TimesLIVE
Gugulethu Mashinini
www.timeslive.co.za
