Smooth start to Gauteng school admissions for 2019

On the first day‚ 153‚770 parents had successfully submitted their online applications for their children to be admitted to Gauteng government schools next year‚ the education department said on Tuesday.

The department opened its online applications on Monday for Grade 1s and 8s. Applications close on May 28.

The department urged parents‚ after submitting applications online‚ to submit all documents to the schools they have applied for within seven days to complete the application process.

The documents required are the learner’s identity document‚ parent or guardian’s identity document and proof of home or work address. Grade 8 applications must supply a Grade 7 report and Grade 1 applications must supply an inoculation card.

The department said parents applying for any other grade must do so at the school. It said learners currently enrolled for Grade R at a school must also apply online for Grade 1 as admission was not automatic. Parents may only apply for up to five schools per learner.

Some of the technical glitches experienced previously seemed to have been ironed out‚ with parents expressing their satisfaction with the online process this time around.

The absence of a language choice on the system‚ however‚ did raise some concern about whether this was a move against schools where Afrikaans is the language of instruction.