Hackers have tried their luck on the Gauteng education department's new online learner application system, the department announced on Tuesday.

MEC Panyaza Lesufi said since the system was launched eight days ago, they have recorded more than 300 hacking attempts.

"All of these attempts have been unsuccessful and this gives us confidence in our system security," Lesufi told the media at a briefing held at the provincial legislature.

"The objectives of those behind these attempts remains unknown to us," he said.

Since the system was launched on April 18, more than 370 000 parents had successfully registered.

This was an average of 53 000 applications a day, Lesufi said.

Tshwane South has registered the most applications at 49 354 learners, followed by Johannesburg East with 37 720.

Pretoria Boys School received the most applications for Grade 8 learners, with 1 821 applications so far.

Laerskool Theresa Park proved to be the primary school which was most in demand with 1 544 applications so far.

"This is showing us the high pressure areas that we must work on," Lesufi said.

We are now in a position to better understand schools which are in high demand and districts which are experiencing pressure," he said, adding that the department would provide all the support it could.

Lesufi emphasised that they were working towards phasing out manual registrations completely in all of the province's schools.

The online application system experienced several disruptions upon its launch earlier this month.

"The take off was indeed bumpy and rough but now that we are airborne, we can celebrate the fruit of our hard labour," Lesufi said.

He apologised to all those who had experienced difficulties on the system. He was aware that there were still technical glitches on the system. Some people were unable to register because of error messages or the system's failure in picking up addresses in informal settlements.

Foreign nationals also had difficulties with the system not picking up on their identification.

Those experiencing challenges were urged to contact the education department's call centre or visit their nearest school or district office.