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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is urging all parents and guardians to submit their child’s online application to secure their placement for the 2022 academic year before the end of today to ensure that they do not miss a day of schooling when the new academic year begins.

Today, Friday, 8th October is the deadline for the GDE phase 2 of the online admission application for Grade 1 and 8 for the 2022 academic year.

We urge parents not to miss this last opportunity but use it to apply and chose their preferred school for their children. Parents who are facing difficulties with their applications and those who do not have internet access should go to their nearest Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) regional office to seek assistance.

Failure to apply on time by parents in the past has had a huge negative impact on the future of the children, where many learners across the province have missed months of schooling due to late applications waiting to be allocated to a school. This has also resulted in learners being placed in schools that have not been chosen by their parents. In most cases, parents choose schools based on their home language, but the child ends up being placed in a school that does not offer their home language which affects their academic progress.

The DA will continue to monitor the processing of the online applications to ensure that all parents who applied on time receive SMS notifications about placement offers. Those who will not receive the SMS notifications should report the matter to their nearest GDE regional offices for clarifications. We will ensure that children who applied on time are prioritized, and we will not allow our children to suffer and be denied access to education because of the department’s incompetency.

Issued by DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL