Parents and schools in Gauteng are still waiting for clarity on learner placements as delays and errors plague the province’s online admission system.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has called on Gauteng Education Member of the Executive Council Matome Chiloane to explain: “problems currently being experienced with school placements.” The group says it has received numerous complaints from parents in Pretoria and Centurion about learners who have either been placed incorrectly or not at all.

According to AfriForum, placements began on 16 October, more than a month later than the previous year, yet: “there is no correspondence or feedback on placements received...the placements have still not been completed by the first week of November.”

The organisation warns that some conditional school choices are being treated as final, while other schools are being forced to take learners not listed on their registers. This, it argues: “undermines the proper registration and placement process.”

AfriForum’s Head of Education Projects, Carien Bloem, says the department’s online system continues to fail despite years of promises to fix it. “The system is supposed to make the process easier for parents and schools but, after how many years, the Gauteng Department of Education still cannot manage to make the process run problem-free,” she said.

Bloem added that AfriForum has sent a formal request via attorneys to Chiloane: “to provide clarity on the problems regarding the placements as soon as possible and to communicate with parents and schools...about the way forward.”