As parents prepared to go online and submit their children's school admissions applications this morning, they were unable to do so as the Gauteng Department of Education's (GDE's) online registration Web site experienced some issues.
Last week, the department issued a statement that parents would from 8am today be able to use the Web site to register their children for the 2017 academic school year.
This morning, the GDE released a statement noting the start of online admissions on the Web site would be delayed from 8am to 10am after experiencing "a technical glitch".
"We sincerely apologise for the delay," it said.
As at 12.45pm today, ITWeb found the site was still inactive.
GDE MEC Panyaza Lesufi took to his Twitter account to address the delay: "Dear Parents, I am now receiving the final brief that will determine everything. Pray for me. Will update you later. I am hopeful.
"We are almost there folks, will update you shortly," he tweeted at 10:02.
Seamless admissions
To encourage tech-savvy school registration as well as minimise long queues during the registration period, Gauteng's provincial education department announced the launch of an online learner admissions site.
The department advised all parents whose children will be doing grade one and eight in 2017 to apply online for their school admissions.
However, phase one of the online application process, which would allow parents to register, verify their details and apply for space for the 2017 academic year, was disrupted after the site crashed last week.
Following this, the GDE temporarily suspended the online registration site, after it said it experienced "unforeseen technical challenges".
According to a statement from the GDE, the system crashed after receiving over 600 applications per second.
Although the online registration site was scheduled to coincide with the school registration process and went live last Monday, the department moved to suspend the registration process up until Wednesday, 13 April.
Issues of concern
Meanwhile, parents have expressed concerns about using the department's Web site.
A parent who will be registering his child in grade eight for the 2017 school year told ITWeb there are still issues with the department's system, especially in terms of determining which school is closest to the child's home.
"This does not seem to be functioning correctly, so when I look at the three closest schools, the Web site is showing schools that are over 25km from my house. I live in Boksburg and the schools are in Rosettenville.
"Another concern is if I then search based on schools closest to my daughter's previous school, the closest English school, which is our preference, is only third on the list superseded by two Afrikaans schools. This not only prevents me from selecting the correct second choice English school but will surely result in the two Afrikaans schools now receiving application requests from large numbers of people never intending to attend their schools in the first place," said the parent.
ITWeb contacted the GDE for comment, but the department did not respond by time of publication.
The online admissions system follows a three-step process: registration, logging in and application.
Once the process has been completed, parents will receive an automated SMS indicating offer of placement. Letters will also be sent to parents informing them of successful and unsuccessful applications.
Parents will be given a period of seven days to accept or reject placement offers, according to the GDE.
Share