Gauteng MEC for Education and Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Matome Chiloane, announced an extension to the 2025 online admissions application deadline for Grade 1 and Grade 8 . Initially the applications were due to be closed today but it has been extended to 14 August. 

SHUTDOWNS OF APPLICATIONS 

Chiloane explained that the extension follows the State Information Technology Agency's (SITA) upgrade of its data centre electrical infrastructure, which forced a complete shutdown of all applications and equipment at the SITA Centurion Data Centre on Thursday.

Due to this, parents and guardians were unable to access the online admissions system. "To accommodate those affected by this downtime, the application deadline for Grade 1 and Grade 8 has been extended to Wednesday, 14 August 2024, ensuring that all parents and guardians have sufficient time to complete the application process," Chiloane told reporters at a briefing in Kempton Park yesterday.

FRAUD NOT ALLOWED

The MEC warned that applicants who uploaded or submitted fraudulent or invalid documents will forfeit the opportunity to receive placement offers.

He announced that as of Friday, 9 August 2024, a total of 768,666 Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications had been submitted for admission to the 2025 academic year.

Chiloane explained that the number of applications for Grade 1 stood at 325,712 while for Grade 8 learners the total was at 442,954 bringing the total to 768,666.

"The above reflects 11,991 more applications than the total of 757,075 applications received in 2023 for the 2024 academic year. Parents and guardians who have already applied to schools are reminded that certified copies of documents must be submitted to schools or uploaded by 12 noon on 21 August 2024. A certified copy of the proof of home address is an essential document as it is used to determine placement. Applicants who have not submitted or uploaded certified copies of proof of home address by 21 August 21 will have incomplete applications and, therefore, will not receive any placement offers," said Chiloane.

INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS 

Chiloane reminded parents that the application process consists of five steps that must be completed in full for space to be granted.

"Where the five-step application process is not completed in full, the applications are considered incomplete, and will not be processed for placement. To date, a total of 96,411 incomplete applications are recorded. Of these, 29,174 parents registered parent and learner details which is step one to three, but failed to apply to any schools or upload/submit documents; and 67,237 parents registered parent and learner details and applied to schools (step one to four) but failed to submit/upload documents," said Chiloane.