Johannesburg - The Gauteng Education Department's online application system will be shut down from Thursday (June 2) for maintenance upgrades.
The deadline for parents to apply for admission for the 2017 academic year ended on Wednesday night and the department said the system would be shut down for maintenance procedures.
The system will be switched back online on Monday.
Acting education spokesperson Oupa Bodibe said the department would not extend the application period, and late applications would not be considered.
He said that between now and the placement period on June 24 and 25, the department would work with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure that foreign parents who did not have identity documents were assisted.
Once parents have been placed, they have a week to accept or reject the placement, otherwise they lose it.
If parents are unhappy with their placement, they can also appeal the decision with the school and the district office.
After applying online, parents still have to go to their schools of choice and submit their supporting documents.
By Tuesday, more than 600 000 parents had used the online applications system.
There were about 232 430 spaces for Grade 1 and 177 185 for Grade 8, Bodibe said.
A total of 17 167 parents had applied for grades 2 to 7. Bodibe said these were mostly parents who would be migrating to Gauteng from other provinces. Their applications would be considered.
Parents who already live in the province and want to change their children's school next year can just apply for transfers and don't have to use the online system.
Bodibe said the system did not experience a lot of issues and parents who were unable to register called technicians who assisted them.
The Star