Gauteng Education Department spokesperson Steve Mabona has pointed to mistakes made by parents as a major factor behind the ongoing school placement backlog affecting approximately 3 000 Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils.
To date 358 000 students in Grade 1 and Grade 8 have been placed in schools.
Speaking outside the Morningside Teaching Centre on Wednesday, the first day of the 2026 academic year for South African public schools, Mabona explained that limited school capacity is worsened by late applications and incorrect parental choices.
Rushed placements
Mabona acknowledged that different categories of parents were waiting outside schools on Wednesday morning, demanding placements.
He said some parents submitted their applications late and were unable to secure placements at their preferred schools, leading them to apply to any available schools.
Others made the error of applying to schools outside their residential districts, with some Johannesburg residents mistakenly applying to Ekurhuleni schools.
He said, “Because schools that are available were popping up, and you know that during this late application, there’s no opportunity for a waiting period for placement. Once you click a school, you’re automatically placed. So we then need to assist them and resolve that.”
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Misunderstandings compound placement crises
Beyond timing and location errors, Mabona noted that some parents had not applied at all, arriving only recently and requiring urgent placement support.
He also highlighted financial misunderstandings, explaining that some parents initially applied to costly schools without being able to afford the fees and later sought to transfer their children.
“We need to then assist them with the process of changing those schools,” Mabona said.
The education spokesperson said some parents were struggling with placements because they were transferring from one school to the next.
Online system reliability questioned
Regarding concerns about the online placement system’s reliability, Mabona acknowledged complaints from parents who had been allocated spaces but were later told their children were not on the school lists.
He said he did not yet have answers to these predicaments. However, he stressed the department’s commitment to resolving these cases.
Mabona emphasised the need to thoroughly investigate these individual cases to understand what went wrong within the school, district, and head office.
“We’ve got cases, individual cases, that we attend on a daily basis. We need to zoom in closer and understand on what might have transpired.”
In response to the backlog, Mabona said the department is actively negotiating with schools to increase capacity and create more placements.
He assured parents that “the negotiations wouldn’t go on until February”.
According to Mabona, the department is making efforts to finalise Grade 1 placements by the end of this week.
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