Admissions flaws: Gauteng learners left unplaced

Administrative barriers and the absence of clear plans have left thousands of children without placements this academic year. By Faranaaz Veriava

- Faranaaz Veriava

Despite the fact that the school year has begun, the Gauteng Department of Education says that approximately 5,000 learners from grades 1 to 8 have not yet been placed in Gauteng schools. Photo: Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images

(Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images)

A new school year is upon us. However, approximately 5,000 learners in Grades 1 to 8 remain unplaced in Gauteng schools, according to the Gauteng Department of Education online application system.

These numbers are likely to be higher because what would probably not be recorded on the system are the undocumented learners - many of whom are South African - who are prevented from registering online because of a lack of documentation.

In mid-December 2025, Radio 702 hosted the Gauteng Department of Education spokesperson to respond to the public outcry about the thousands of learners eligible to enter grades 1 and 8, but who remained unplaced.

A clearly distressed mom called into the show saying that her child was starting Grade 1 but had still not been placed, despite having applied. The spokesperson said he would take her name and try to sort it out. When she requested a timeline for this, the department's representative refused to give her one, because, according to him, most district managers were already on leave.

This is unacceptable in a context where thousands of parents and learners remain anxious about securing places in schools. An urgent response and clear plan ought to have been in place to deal with what is clearly a foreseeable and recurring crisis every year.

Gauteng and the Western Cape are provinces to which people from poorer provinces migrate annually in search of job opportunities and better resourced schools, and migrating learners can lose months of learning before they are placed in a school.