School admissions and infrastructure update

Statement by Minister David Maynier, Minister of Education Western Cape

As of 17h30 on Thursday, 16 March 2023, we have received applications for 40 694 learners for the 2024 school year.

With parents applying for more than one school for their children, the total number of individual applications to schools received in the first four days of the applications window is 137 417.

The online application process will be open until 23h59 on 14 April 2023.

The online system is running smoothly, with a small number of parents experiencing technical glitches.

Parents are able to log a query using the “contact us” option at the top of the admissions page.

We are committed to assisting all parents with technical issues to resolve each and every problem as soon as possible. 

We urge parents not to be alarmed if they face any technical difficulties. All problems can and will be dealt with by our staff, and we thank parents for their patience and for heeding our call to apply on time this year.

2023 Infrastructure update

We have been hard at work since before schools reopened to complete infrastructure for new learners in the current school year, and to find places for all the applicants we received.

We have delivered 742 classrooms for 2023 to date, and we thank our officials, government partners, contractors, communities, and schools for their hard work and cooperation to achieve this important task.

Over and above the unprecedented 842 classrooms we committed to, we are deploying additional mobile classrooms to areas where the need for placement is greatest, and to cope with the challenge that extremely late applications pose.

2023 admissions update as of 10 March 2023

As of 10 March 2023, we have resolved 122 519, or 99.9%, of the unique Grade 1 and Grade 8 placement applications for the 2023 school year, and are in the process of placing 91, or 0.1%, of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for the 2023 school year.

It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of the cases where placement is still in progress are new applicants who arrived this year.

Applications fall into three groups:

• Applications received on time before the deadline;
• Late applications received after the deadline but before the end of 2022; and
• Extremely late applications received since the start of this year.

On-time applicants:

Placement is in progress for just 4 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for whom applications were received on time. The parents of these learners are either uncontactable or have rejected the offer of placement.

Late applicants (received in 2022):

Placement is in progress for 6 of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for whom applications were received after the deadline for applications passed, but before the end of 2022. The majority of these were received in November and December 2022.

These learners are being prioritised at present. Unfortunately, some of the parents of these learners are also unreachable, even when we have places to offer for their children.

Extremely late applicants (received in 2023):

We have received new, extremely late applications for 4 045 Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners since 1 January 2023 for the 2023 school year.

We have already placed 3 964, or 98.0%, of the Grade 1 and 8 learners for whom extremely late applications were received after 1 January 2023.

Placement is in progress for 81 of the Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners for whom extremely late applications were received after 1 January 2023.

We understand that the placement process can cause frustration for parents, and we ask for their patience and assure them that we are doing everything we can to ensure their children’s placement is finalised as soon as possible.

Media Enquiries:
Kerry Mauchline
Spokesperson to Minister David Maynier
Western Cape Ministry of Education
Kerry.Mauchline@westerncape.gov.za