To: Decision-maker: Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile

END ONLINE-ONLY SCHOOL ADMISSIONS BEFORE 2028


1. End online-only admissions and make districts accountable.
Keep the portal optional. Establish staffed district offices where parents can apply in person, correct errors, and challenge decisions. Publish office locations, opening hours, and clear placement criteria before applications open. Make feeder-zone rules accessible, explain how places are allocated, and give parents reasons for decisions they can challenge. Record all applications in one auditable database and publish district-level figures so the public can see where the process is failing.


2. Plan for continuity from Grade R to Grade 1.
Account for existing Grade R learners when planning Grade 1 capacity. Prioritise keeping children at their current school where space allows, and explain when a move is necessary.

Why is this important?

Every year, Gauteng parents are told to apply, upload documents, and wait. When the system fails, parents must again chase answers, correct errors, and travel between offices. When placements are delayed, children lose learning time. When schools are too far from home, parents must figure out how to get them there. These are not minor administrative inconveniences. They affect children during crucial years of their education. Ten years into this system, the Department is still leaving parents to clean up its mess. Is this not enough evidence that the Department is not coping?

We demand an end to online-only admissions before 2028. Keep and improve the portal, but stop making it the only way to access a public school place. Parents must be able to apply in person, get help with documents and challenge errors without needing a smartphone, data or a printer.

The website crashed in 2016. In 2019, 43,797 applicants were reportedly unplaced when the deadline was extended. In 2021, 121,778 applicants were awaiting placement as another deadline was extended. For the 2026 school year, 10,295 learners remained unplaced in December 2025, and 4,858 were still waiting on 6 January 2026. The Department announced the placement of the final 484 learners only in March. [1–4] These are not isolated glitches. After a decade, the Department is still struggling to deliver placements on time.

Yet Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile himself presented the 210,055 applications received within the first four hours of the 2027 admissions process as evidence of “the continued confidence that parents and guardians have in the province’s online admissions system” [11]. Confidence? What choice do many parents have when private schooling is unaffordable? Parents are not applying to congratulate the Department. They are trying to secure their children's education. Demand for public schools is not proof that the admissions system works, especially when the Department continues to struggle to place the very children behind those applications. High application numbers prove that families need public education. They do not prove that the system delivering it is working.

Digitisation has not resolved longstanding problems with admissions. The old paper system had documented problems with discriminatory admissions and unlawful fees. In 2025, parents reported alleged demands for money for school places, and the Department warned about placement scams. [5–7] Moving admissions online means little if parents cannot clearly understand the criteria used to place their children or challenge decisions they believe are wrong.

Internet access and digital literacy cannot be assumed. The Gauteng City-Region Observatory found that 54% of surveyed households had no home internet connection. The Department's walk-in centre locations were reportedly still unpublished days before applications opened in 2025. [8–9] A child's access to education should not depend on a parent's data, digital skills or ability to navigate a website.

The disconnect between Grade R and Grade 1 is another sign that admissions have not been properly thought through. A child can attend Grade R at a school that offers Grade 1 and still have no guarantee of staying there. Why is the Department not planning for this very predictable transition? Parents are left to reapply, unnecessarily compete for places, and risk uprooting children from schools where they have settled. Are we prioritising numbers or children's wellbeing? [10]

Gauteng parents, add your voice.  Sign and share this petition. Tell us about application errors, delayed placements, schools far from home, or demands for money, and identify the district involved.

We are not asking Gauteng to abandon technology. We are asking why, after ten years, parents are still expected to work around a system that is supposed to serve them. The Department must stop treating recurring failures as isolated problems and prove that it can deliver accessible, accountable admissions before 2028.

A school place is a right, not a lottery. End online-only admissions before 2028.

Sources

1. Website crash, April 2016


2. Placement delays in 2019 and 2021


3. Unplaced learners during the 2026 admissions cycle


4. Final placements announced in March 2026


5. Historical admissions discrimination and unlawful fees


6. Reports of alleged payments for placements, January 2025

7. Department warning about placement fraud, November 2025

8. Internet access in Gauteng

9. Walk-in centre information, July 2025

10. Admissions rules and Grade R-to-Grade 1 continuity

11. Maile's statement about parental confidence, 5 August 2026



Gauteng, South Africa

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