With the 2026 academic year only weeks away, more than 10,000 Grade 1 and 8 pupils remain unplaced in Gauteng, fuelling parents’ despair and criticism of the glitch-plagued online admissions system. Despite promises of fixes, recurring technical woes, poor communication and unwanted school transfers have reignited calls for an overhaul from AfriForum, the DA and frustrated families.
Illustrative image: The Gauteng Department of Education reports that more than 10,000 learners remain unplaced, but says that daily placement and transfer offers continue as the department works to accommodate every learner. It has opened its 2026 online admissions system for late applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8, targeting parents who missed the main application period or had incomplete submissions. (Photo: Sharon Seretlo / Gallo Images)
Illustrative image: The Gauteng Department of Education reports that more than 10,000 learners remain unplaced, but daily placement and transfer offers continue as the department works to accommodate every learner (illustrative photo) (Photo: Sharon Seretlo / Gallo Images)
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Takudzwa Pongweni
By Takudzwa Pongweni
18 Dec 2025
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With the 2026 academic year just weeks away, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) is facing mounting pressure to secure school places for more than 10,000 pupils still awaiting admission to Grade 1 and Grade 8.
This includes 2,848 Grade 1 pupils and 7,447 Grade 8 pupils.
“The department continues to work tirelessly to ensure that all students are placed,” read a statement from the department, adding that placement and transfer offers are released daily, especially in high-pressure areas such as Kempton Park, Thembisa, Alberton, Ivory Park and Centurion.
Read more: Learners in limbo as Gauteng schools face severe delays with no projects delivered
A decade of digital disaster
When the GDE introduced its online admissions application system in 2015, it was sold as a modern, efficient way to end long queues and bring transparency to school placements.
The primary aim was to develop a centralised database for planning and monitoring admissions processes across the province, while a secondary aim was to eradicate long queues at schools on the first day of applications.
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The system was designed to ensure schools applied admissions regulations fairly and equitably, with objectives including creating a centralised database to inform resourcing needs across all line functions; eliminating long queues during the application period; placing all learners within set timeframes; ensuring schools placed learners according to capacity in line with infrastructure norms and standards; providing accurate data for proper planning; enabling efficient management and monitoring of admissions processes; and allowing parents to access departmental services with ease.
A decade later, the platform has become synonymous with technical glitches, such as websites crashing under peak traffic, login timeouts, failed document uploads, poor communication, including undelivered SMS notifications and vague status updates – resulting in anxious parents who still do not know where their children will go to school, sometimes even after the school year has started. These recurring problems with the Gauteng online admissions system have emerged almost every year since its launch, to the point where many parents now brace themselves for issues as a normal part of the process.
2016–2017: Launch and early glitches
The system was introduced in 2016 to replace physical queues for Grade 1 and 8 admissions; from the start, it struggled with handling large numbers of simultaneous users and timing of communication to parents.
Parents reported difficulty accessing the site, completing applications and getting timely placement feedback.
2018–2019
The system continued to experience “hiccups”, including crashes under load, slow responses and persistent backlogs of unplaced learners at the start of the school year.
2020–2022: Persistent placement and communication problems
Each admission cycle saw repeated complaints from parents that they had completed all the online steps but their children were either not placed or placed very late, leading to queues at district offices despite the “online” system.
Common problems included incomplete applications stuck in the system, confusion over document uploads, and parents’ misunderstanding of status messages because of limited or unclear communication from the department.
2023–2024: Political and public criticism intensifies
Opposition parties, especially the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng, publicly called out the online registration system, saying it “must be fixed” because ongoing technical and administrative problems were preventing parents from registering their children smoothly.
Complaints highlighted system downtime, errors with document status and failure to place learners near their homes, with statements from opposition parties and media reports framing the system as unreliable and in need of urgent overhaul.
2025
Parent groups and social media posts continued to describe problems such as status errors (“no documents submitted” despite uploads), confusion over application steps, and a sense that the admissions platform remains a “broken” or failing system that has not met its original promise.
Emotional toll of endless waiting
The 2025 cycle has proved no different, with parents across Gauteng voicing growing despair over placement delays, with many describing emotional exhaustion as they face uncertainty just weeks before the 2026 academic year begins. Families who have already invested in uniforms and supplies now grapple with explaining the delay to their children, while unwanted school transfers and unresponsive appeals compound the stress
“What exactly is going on? What do we say to our kids? Some families have already purchased school uniforms while waiting in uncertainty. I just have to look at my child each day with no answers while waiting for a system to place her where they think she should study.”
A mother, speaking to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity, called the department’s handling of applications “not good at all”.
“Some have been transferred to schools we didn’t even apply for and the appeal process for these offers takes forever,” she said of her Grade 7 daughter’s situation.