The Gauteng education department will need 10 days to finalise placement challenges in the province, MEC Matome Chiloane said during a Wednesday school visit in Ga-Rankuwa, outside Pretoria.

Speaking at the newly refurbished Kgatoentle Secondary School, Chiloane said it had been a "very good" start to the academic year. The department was able to complete the applications on time, and parents were notified of the placement decisions.

Chiloane added that he had received positive reports from most schools in the province, but challenges remained at a few.

"The 10 days is very welcomed to ensure that we get everything right so that we are able to deal with the placement. [But] we can say that we are better off this year than we were last year."

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, who accompanied Chiloane at the school opening, told the media that parents became very anxious when their children were not placed.

"The phone rings all the time, and parents rightfully panic if their children have not been placed. It is a very difficult period, not only in Gauteng. I even have parents from Knysna. I don't even know the school they are talking about.

"We normally appeal to communities to say, give us 10 days to see whether there are spaces when schools are full, and when we identify spaces, we start plugging in your kids where we need to have temporary measures," she said.

She said that provinces had confirmed in the readiness report she received that they had ordered stationery, but would not distribute it until schools reopened, because of vandalism.

"So, unfortunately, instead of having stationery yesterday [Tuesday], it is only going to start arriving today [Wednesday] for safety and security purposes.

"We will measure in the next 10 days when we do our 10-days return to see if all learners have received their stationery and books."

Motshekga said that teams were stationed in all provinces to provide daily progress reports to the department. She said the teams had experienced problems in KwaZulu-Natal following the floods.

"I am going there on Friday when they release their reports and also work with the province to see what is it that we need to do to deal with the floods that have really affected the province," she said.

Motshekga added that she also picked up on several challenges at schools in Mpumalanga during an ANC roadshow.

"Parents were panicking. They had not received books and were told to buy. I did commit that we will go back to that area."