Matome Chiloane, Gauteng MEC for education, sport, arts, culture and recreation. (Photograph by GDE)
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) this morning kicked-off the 2026 online admissions application period for grades one and eight.
The GDE marked the occasion with a “switch-on” event at the YMCA in Ga-Rankuwa,north-west of Pretoria, with Matome Chiloane, MEC for education, sport, arts, culture and recreation, officially opening the system for new applications at 8am.
Chiloane said: “From today until the 29 August, the system will be open. We urge parents to be patient with us and have confidence that we will make sure we place their children.
“There’s usually a bit of anxiety…but I urge parents to not apply to just one school. Overall, the system is ready to handle applications…we’ve improved it to handle up to 50 000 applications per minute, so it will not crash. All parents will be able to apply.”
He also urged parents to ensure they complete the five-step application process as they submit their children’s applications.
The online application system is meant for registration of learners starting grades one and eight in the 2026 academic year.
The provincial education department introducedthe schools online registration system for grade one and eight learners in 2016, under leadership of premier Panyaza Lesufi. This was part of the department’s effort to prevent long queues and encourage a tech-savvy school registration process.
The system, however, has often been prone to hiccups, ranging from the inability to handle multiple users at a time and the department failing to communicate on time with parents on the status of their children’s applications, to finding schools for unplaced learners at the start of every academic year.
It’s also been reported that the system was prone to manipulation by some officials in schools and district offices. Chiloane previously acknowledged the system’s teething problems.
Today, he told media that the launch for the 2026 iteration of the learner admission system has been “successful”.
“The system went live as planned. There were no anticipated glitches. I know there were thousands of parents who logged-in earlier expecting the system to automatically change, but they had to wait and reboot. Upon rebooting, the system was live for them.”
The MEC said over 10 000 applications had gone through successfully, with this number expected to be much higher during the day.
“We know that by the end of the day, we’ll be sitting with a very high number, but so far so good…we haven’t received any feedback on challenges with the system from the public, so we’re happy with how we have started.”
For a step-by-step guide to the application process, click here.
