The Gauteng department of Education has received thousands of online applications since the recent launch of the online schools registration system. The department rolled out the online applications system in April this year and it was open until June. ''The primary aim was to develop a centralised database for planning and monitoring admissions processes in the province and the secondary aim was to eradicate long queues at schools on the first day of application and to make the service accessible to parents”‚ MEC Panyaza Lesufi said at the time.Lesufi told media at a briefing that the department had received 682‚142 applications overall from parents‚ of which 451‚759 were duplicates."The online registration created an anxiety amongst parents and created uncertainty because may people were struggling to log in at work and many were unsure if this system will succeed so they asked various people to apply on their behalf which led to 451‚759 duplicates‚" Lesufi said.Lesufi said a total of 227‚000 applications were processed‚ and parents had started receiving SMSes telling them which schools their children have been admitted to.A total of 118‚534 applications for Grade 1 and 91‚221 for Grade 8 learners have been processed.Applications for in-between grades totalled 18‚425‚ and 2‚223 were for independent schools.Lesufi said the department considered the parents’ homes addresses‚ the location of their workplaces and what schools the children’s siblings attended before placing them at various schools.He said parents who were unhappy with the schools their children had been allocated to could report to the regional department offices to clarify the matter."We are quite excited that we've managed to have a proper functional system to manage our applications and to us it’s all systems ready now‚" he said...