Lesufi: More than 81% of pupils placed in schools so far

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has said 181 119 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners (81.48%) have been successfully placed in schools around the province, for the 2021 academic year.

Lesufi gave an update on the online school admissions process on Sunday, 29 November 2020. This means the department is slightly behind in allocating schools to learners as the admissions process got underway on 1 October 2020 and was set to conclude on Monday, 30 November.

A total of 88 503 Grade 1 applicants and 92 616 Grade 8 applicants are placed.

“We can confidently inform parents that out the 181,119 applications were properly placed and unfortunately, 41,146 parents have not received their placements. Of the total number that we received, we have managed to place 81 percent. We are now left with 18 percent of parents that are not placed,” he said.

The online application process commenced on 25 June 2020 and ended on 25 July.

Lesufi said school placement offers not accepted within seven days of receipt, were forfeited.

“Based on the capacity of each school to accommodate learners, offers of placement were released to qualifying applicants as per Admissions Regulations,” the MEC said.

Lesufi further said that they had more applications than the number of classrooms they had, something he said created a headache for the department, the officials, and the parents. However the MEC has urged parents to be patient.

“We are aware that parents are in a panic mode. Many parents are angry and the anxiety has reached unacceptable levels,” Lesufi said.

Currently 280 schools (144 primary schools and 136 high schools) have reached full capacity and cannot accommodate any more placements. The “high-pressure” areas include Benoni Alberton, Johannesburg South, Lenasia, Roodepoort, Bryanston, Midrand, Centurion and Akasia, north of Pretoria.

Lesufi: There’s still hope for unplaced pupils

The MEC has said however the unplaced applicants and including those that have been transferred and accepted will on Monday, 7 December 2020,  be given an opportunity to choose their preferred schools from a list with available spaces.

Lesufi said objections would be processed from 7 December 2020.

“The system will from 16 December to 21 December 2020 open for the 33 460 applicants who did not submit documents during the application period,” he said.