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 14h00pm today, we 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.
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.
The MEC for Education Mr. P. Lesufi is going to make a crucial announcement at 14:00. We apologize profusely for the delay