Gauteng Education Dept: Grade 1, 8 online late registration open

Parents who may have missed the deadline to register their children to Grade 1 and 8 in Gauteng have one last chance to do so as the provincial education department has reopened registration from Tuesday, 22 December until 22 January 2021.

The Gauteng Education Department said however, that walk-in centres will be open on 18 January 2021, providing assistance to parents who couldn’t take advantage of the current period.

The department, which would often establish walk-in centres at schools, said this would not be the case this time around, adding that all the necessary COVID-19 health and safety measures will be adhered to.

“All COVID-19 protocols will be observed. Make sure that there are no long queues at those centres but we definitely have a plan…We are really hoping that by the time we open those walk-in centres we will have quite a sizeable number, which will be manageable,” said department spokesperson Steve Mabona.

Gauteng Education Dept: More than 95% of learners placed

Unfortunately, all parents who applied in June/July will not be able to reapply because the system will not allow them to do so.

According to the department, there are 211 643 learners who have been placed while 10 632 are yet to be allocated schools for 2021. This translates to 95.22% of leaners who have been placed so far.

“Parents of unplaced learners may continue to choose available schools in the system and those who could not upload documents may also upload accordingly,” Mabona further said.

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

The department said its decision to open late registrations came after parents had reached out.

“We have been receiving so many inquiries from parents who really wanted to apply so hence we felt that let’s open the system now, while we are still in December so that come January, we will then be focusing on making sure that schools are ready to reopen,” Mabona said in an interview with eNCA.

The next school year will undoubtedly be an interesting one, with the entire sector now having to navigate in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited classroom time and changed the entire education landscape.

Schools reopen on 27 January 2021.