The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) will officially open the 2019 online application system for grade one and eight admissions on Monday, 16 April, at 8am, and close at midnight, 28 May.
Now in its third year, the GDE's online admissions system was initiated to handle large volumes of applications, as well as allow for a transparent and fair school application process for those learners starting grades one and eight.
Despite issues, such as failure to place learners timeously and technical glitches, the department remains resolute that the online application system is the way to go.
It explains: "The system has many advantages for parents, schools and the department. It is convenient for parents, as they can apply from their PC, mobile smartphones or tablet at any time. This has eliminated queues at some of the schools, thereby saving time for the parents.
"Using the online system has made the applications process transparent and fair, thus eliminating manipulation and human indiscretions. Parents can check the status of the application by logging on to the system. This means the department has a statistical view of data of all applications made."
Key modifications
According to the GDE, the online system has been refined to improve user experience and that includes self-help tools such as step-by-step guide tutorials. In addition, the department says it has automated the query management system to curtail the turnaround time between lodging a query and receiving a response.
"To curb the duplication and multiplication of profiles for one learner, the system now recognises learners based on their identity number.
"We appeal to parents to safely keep their SMSes and other communication generated by the online system. That is, profiles created to log on online, list of documents requested as well as offers of placement. Parents must therefore provide their own cellphone number to enable communication with the department.
"We will embark on an advocacy campaign to inform parents of the online application process," continues the GDE.
In addressing the challenge of school preference, the GDE says parents and guardians can now apply for five schools per learner going to grade one, while for grade eight the school options extend to six per learner.
Included on the criteria list for the different school options are: home address, work address, sibling and school of choice.
A parent applying for grade eight can also indicate the current school the child is attending. This will identify high schools closest to the current primary school the learner is attending, the department notes.
"An application using home address, work address or sibling at the school will be placed on priority list A or WA. The rationale for this is to prioritise applications of learners living closer to the school. However, using the school of choice option, the applicant will be placed on waiting list B or WB. This means the applicant lives or works outside of the feeder zone."
In addition, the GDE says, any parent who lacks access to the Internet or requires face-to-face assistance should visit one of the decentralised application centres or a community library. "The department will operate 65 admissions centres across the 15 education districts."
Alternatively, parents can contact the department via phone or e-mail.
Committed partners
Meanwhile, Vodacom Business has reiterated its commitment to work with the GDE to enhance the online application system for the 2019 intake.
Vodacom Business says, in collaboration with the State IT Agency, it will continue to provide assistance with cloud hosting services and dedicated firewalls that come with management backup storage services for the digital online application platform system.
The company adds it will open all 16 of its ICT community centres across the Gauteng province to provide parents with free Internet access to process applications.
Mickey Mashale, chief sales officer for Vodacom's Enterprise Business Unit, says: "The Vodacom cloud service will continue to make the department's system more robust by decreasing dependency on manual input, reducing risk and helping make the department more efficient and agile."
Share