Online only, despite mess

14 April 2016 - 02:47 By Katharine Child

The Gauteng education department has barred schools from accepting paper applications, despite three days of problems with its online school admissions portal.Despite assurances from the department that the system would be operational, parents remained sceptical that the system to apply for Grade 1 and Grade 8 places would work on Tuesday.This week the Federation of Governing Bodies of S A Schools urged its member schools to be prepared for queues should the computer system crash again.The department said yesterday the online system had been fixed and could now handle up to 3000 users a second.It admitted the system still had many errors, such as providing only one gender selection, choosing schools in Eastern Cape for Gauteng parents and sending error messages to people updating details. In some instances the system has suggested all-girl schools for boys.But the department insisted these issues would be fixed in time.Places in popular schools are issued on a first-come, first-served basis, leading to parents' concerns that if the system crashes on Tuesday, as it did this week, their children will not get a place in a school of their choosing.Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said objections to the online system by governing body organisations were because the bodies wanted to hold onto "the benefits afforded by paper-based application system done school-by-school".Tim Gordon, CEO of the Governing Body Foundation, which represents 700 schools, said:"Parents would like to be part of a solution instead of being insulted [by the MEC]."He denied school governing bodies benefited from a paper system.Lesufi "apologised unreservedly" to parents and schools for the site crash on Monday, which occurred because it was unable to handle the 600 people a second in user traffic."The capacity problems are now history," said Lesufi.He said the paper-based application system caused problems for the department, including forms going missing and schools providing incorrect information on how many children had applied.An online system would help the department to establish in advance how many pupils would be attending each school.This would help with the planning, he explained...

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