GAUTENG. – The Gauteng Department of Education has received 805,688 applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 for the 2027 school year, highlighting the high demand for places at public schools.
The application period closed on Friday, four September at midnight. A total of 357,468 parents and guardians registered online. Because parents can choose more than one school, the number of applications does not represent the number of individual learners. The department recorded 169,396 unique Grade 1 learners and 177,481 unique Grade 8 learners. This means that 346,877 individual learners applied for places in these two grades.
High School Langehoven in Tshwane-West received the most applications for Grade 8 with 3,462. This was followed by High School Alberton with 2,756, High School Katlehong with 2,747, Specialist Engineering School Katlehong with 2,573 and High School Parktown Boys' with 2,448.
For Grade 1, Primary School Akasia in the north of Pretoria received the most applications with 1,355. Primary School Palmridge received 1,330 applications, followed by Primary School Alston with 1,207, Primary School Lakeside with 1,162 and Primary School Stoneridge with 1,153.
Placement will occur according to prescribed criteria, including the learner's home address, the school's feeder area, distance, a brother or sister already at the school and, where applicable, the parent's work address. Where no place is available at any of the schools chosen by a parent, the department can offer a place at the nearest school with available capacity.
Parents with outstanding documents have until eleven September 2026 at 12:00 to submit or upload certified documents. Placements for parents with complete applications are expected to begin from fifteen October 2026.
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This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
