Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile says the province must rethink school capacity after more than 805,000 Grade 1 and 8 applications were received for 2027.
Gauteng has received 805,688 applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 places for 2027, putting further pressure on school capacity as Education MEC Lebogang Maile calls for a rethink of how available classrooms are used.
“We cannot sustain a situation where one public school is overwhelmed by thousands of applications while another public school, sometimes only a few kilometres away, has available classrooms or declining enrolment,” Maile said on Sunday.
The Gauteng Department of Education received 805,688 applications before the Online Admissions System closed at midnight on Friday.
The applications came from 357,468 parents and guardians, with 346,877 individual learners seeking places in the two entry grades.
