GDE Late Applications for 2025: What Parents Should Be Aware Of

As the school year draws near for 2025, Gauteng’s Department of Education has announced a very important date regarding GDE Late Applications for 2025. This is aimed to those parents who have missed the first period of application for enrolment to Grades 1 and 8.

Starting on December 11, 2024, the Department will initiate the late registration period, providing a second opportunity to parents who either did not complete their application during the regular timeframe, missed the deadline, or experienced circumstances that require them to change their child’s school.

While the Department has indeed made it very clear that a place will be available in school for all children, this late registration phase is no less significant in terms of challenges and considerations it comes with.

Here is everything parents need to know about this critical window of registration and how to work through the process without much fuss.

Why GDE Late Applications for 2025 Important?

According to the Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, GDE Late Applications for 2025 provides a second chance for parents who, for whatever reason, were not able to file a complete application during the main registration period. The Department said most incomplete applications were due to failures by parents to submit documents required to prove home addresses or child identification papers. In other instances, some parents might have begun the online application but never finished it.

Therefore, late registration gives such parents an opportunity to provide the missing documents and get their children admitted to a school for the coming year.

Date to Note: December 11, 2024

Parents who missed the application window will be allowed to commence the process from December 11, 2024. The Department will only consider GDE Late Applications for 2025 after processing all completed applications that were received during the main registration phase, approximately 325,858* of them.

These GDE Late Applications for 2025 dates also provide an opportunity for those who are not tech-savvy by including Walk-in Centres registrations.

How GDE Late Applications for 2025 will now Works

• Document submission: Parents who submitted incomplete applications are supposed to submit outstanding documentation. The Department will continue to send reminders via SMS to alert parents about what needs to be done in order for them to complete their applications.
• School Placement: The available schools for late applicants will be those that have the capacity after the processing of main registration placements. It may be different from the various schools they applied to in the late registration phase of the year.
• Ongoing Admissions: In a manner similar to the regular registration period, parents will receive placement offers via SMS or be informed of the status of their application on the Gauteng Department of Education’s online platform. However, the choices could be limited to available spots in schools.

Nothing to worry about: The Department has assured parents that each child will get allocated a school, and there are those areas considered to be high in demand, where some schools might be over-subscribed, hence parents should not panic if their schools of preference are not made available to them. It would continue to find ways of ensuring all learners are placed, even in late applications.

Hot Spots: The Truth About Late Registration

The problem of late registration was felt in high-pressure areas, normally characterised by a very small supply base compared to the demand contribution. The Department has conceded that in these areas, especially the rapidly developing urban centres, the demand for school space results in a high degree of disappointment for parents who would possibly not get their first school of choice.

For example, schools like Lenasia, whose admission was supposed to be for only 240 pupils, got over 1,475 applications. This indicates stiff competition for the few places offered within some urbanised areas whose populations have grown due to high-rise buildings and an influx of families.

What Parents Should Do to ace GDE Late Applications for 2025

Avail Support Services: The Department has set up working centres at schools and districts to support parents in registration. Such parents who might not be conversant with the online system or do not have reliable internet services can cross-check and visit these centres for further assistance. In addition, parental avoidance of unkept internet cafes which could not follow the proper registration process should be avoided.

This GDE Late Applications for 2025 period, however, is a critical opportunity for those parents who might have missed the deadline or sent incomplete applications earlier in the year to ensure their children would be placed in schools for the 2025 academic year. The process is foreboding, especially in high-demand areas, but the Gauteng Department of Education has assured parents that every child will find space in school.

Parents are, therefore, advised to take immediate action by being well-informed and availing themselves of all supportive services provided by the Department during this phase to avoid further delay and a possible letdown. The late registration window opens on 11th December 2024 and shall be a lifeline for those still needing to find placements for their children.