Panyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng MEC for Education, said on Sunday that Gauteng schools are already filled to capacity for 2021.  Parents will only have 7 school days to accept placement in a school, after which they will lose their spot to the next applicant on the list.    Schools will have until the end of November to confirm placement of grade 1’s and 8’s.  During this time schools will be accepting students based on its capacity.  Once a school reaches its capacity, it will be removed from the list of available schools and no further students will be placed there.  Students who are not placed at their preferred school will receive offers for placement at other schools, provided the schools have open space.  Parents can expect to receive notification from more than one school for placement.  Should parents confirm one of the two option, the other will no longer be available should they change their minds.

According to Lesufi, schools in Gauteng can accommodate 373,634 new learners, but have already received 409,770 applications.  Parents were only allowed to apply at 5 schools of their choice.   The department of Education published a list of the most popular schools for 2021.

Most popular schools for 2021

The department is still expecting there to be a rush of late applications which will exacerbate the problem with over-population of schools.