Gauteng MEC for education, sport, arts, culture and recreation, Matome Chiloane. [Photograph by GDE]
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) says 317 988 out of 358 574 grade one and eight ‘unique applicants’ have been placed in schools for the coming academic year, translating to 88.7%.This was revealed yesterday when the provincial education department provided an update of the online admissions process.
GDE explained that unique applicants refers to individual grade one and grade eight learners whose school applications were submitted via the 2026 online admissions system.
A further breakdown shows that 160 262 (91.2%) of learners have received placement for grade one, while 157 726 (86.3%) grade eight learners have been placed.
“The remaining 40 586 (11.3%) unique applicants are receiving placement offers through transfers from schools with available space,” said GDE.
“The department prioritises placement of the 358 574 applicants with complete applications.
“Placement offers and transfer offers are released daily to facilitate placement of the remaining 40 586 unplaced applicants, translating to 15 530 (8.8%) grade one and 25 056 (13.7%) grade eight [learners].”
The GDE introduced the schools online registration system for grade one and eight learners in 2016, under then-leadership of current Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi. This was part of the department’s effort to prevent long queues and encourage a tech-savvy school registration process.
The process, however, has often been criticised for hiccups, such as the system’s inability to handle multiple users at a time and the lack of timeous communication by the department on the status of learners’ applications.
In July, the GDE opened the online application system for registration of learners starting grades one and eight in the 2026 academic year. It began sending out placement offers to parents and guardians via SMS and through the online admissions system in October.
According to the department, for the first time in 10 years, it encountered factors that led to the delay of releasing placement offers.
Notable among these, it stated, was the late submission of required documents, and falsified proof of home addresses which required additional verification, requests to reverse acceptance of placement offers by applicants who had not used the option to “provisionally accept” a placement offer, placement offers that were not accepted resulted in applicants hoarding spaces at more than one school, and correction of the grade eight applicants’ home language to facilitate continuity in the secondary school.
The department adds that these factors were remedied, to ensure fair placement.
