/ 22 January 2025

Education departments say school placements are done but frustrated parents claim otherwise

2faddce5 2013 01 24 School Admission Plagues Pupils Weeks After Academic New Year Image
The Gauteng department says it has the capacity to accommodate 403 446 applicants for school places in grades one and eight.

Two weeks into the start of the school year, parents say they are still waiting for placement for their children despite the Gauteng department of basic education claiming that all learners have been allocated places.

The department said the only applications still being evaluated were pupils who had relocated to the province or whose parents “do not want schools allocated to them”.

“We have placed everyone in Gauteng … As of 20 January 2025, we have placed 30 498 late applications — 16 255 in grade one and 14 243 in grade eight,” spokesperson Steve Mabona told the Mail & Guardian. 

The Gauteng department says it has the capacity to accommodate  403 446 applicants for school places in grades one and eight. 

One distraught Johannesburg parent told the M&G that her child had been rejected for two consecutive years by President High School in Ridgeway — which is walking distance from her home — because of overcrowding. 

“I applied for my daughter in grade eight at the government school closest to me. She was rejected at the last minute, so we had to borrow money to send her to a private school last year,” said the parent, who wanted to stay anonymous.

“We applied last year again for her to go to a government school for this year but she was rejected because the school said all the grade eights have passed onto grade nine, so they do not have space for my child in grade nine.”

She was told to join the queue for a school in Soweto in a bid to find a placement, which was not successful.

Another parent, who stood in a queue outside the department of basic education’s offices in Soweto for a week before her child got a place, criticised the department’s handling of school allocations. 

“After one week of waiting in lines, I got placement for my son but now he has to travel an extra 15 minutes by taxi to go to school because the department said the school closest to home is overcrowded. Why don’t they build more schools then?” they said.

Last year, the Gauteng education department said the provincial treasury had made available a budget of R207 million to fund additional mobile classrooms for the 2025 intake.

Earlier this month, Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane told journalists that the department would install about 625 mobile classrooms in high-pressure areas which had available land space. These include Lawley, Theresa Park, Eastvale and Naturena.

Since the department opened late online applications on 11 December, it has received more than 344 890 applications. 

The placement process is overseen by the district office, which works with schools and their governing bodies.

Parents or guardians apply through the department’s online admissions portal, select their preferred school and wait for a response. According to the department, placement is offered based on the school’s capacity. 

In the Western Cape, the education department said it had allocated places to 118 914 learners in grades one and eight who had applied for the 2025 school year by 31 December. Placement is in progress for 2 478 learners, Western Cape MEC for education David Maynier told the M&G.

To address overcrowding, the provincial department planned to build nine new schools and 265 additional classrooms in total in 2025. This includes six new schools and 180 classrooms in January.

“Our provincial education system continues to grow and we are taking steps to accommodate the increase in learner numbers this year despite severe budget constraints,” Maynier said.

The North West education department confirmed that it had successfully placed all learners in schools across the province. However, it said it had faced resistance from parents “unwilling to accept the schools recommended for their child”.

“The department cannot permit the existence of overcrowded schools while other institutions experience lower enrollment numbers,” North West education spokesperson  Mphata Molokwane told the M&G.

A parent living in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality related how she had struggled to move her child from a public school to a “model C” one — a semi-privately governed school — because of the application process. 

“The provincial department of education said my child is fine where she is in the public school, why do I want to change her to another school?” the parent told the M&G. “I just want better opportunities for my child which I don’t think that she will get from the high school near my home.”

The North West education department said the province faces a shortage of English home language schools, contributing to the delay in placements. 

The Northern Cape department of basic education said it had allocated 24 312 places for grades one and eight from applications lodged from April to May 2024. It received a further 1 992 late online applications, which had all been placed. 

“Our management plan for admission of learners has proven to be successful, hence we don’t experience any queues at our district offices or our schools,” Northern Cape department of education spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe said.