Problems with school placements in Gauteng

Matome Chiloane, the MEC for Education in Gauteng, has come under fire for the problems related to school placements for 2026.

Parents have sounded the alarm about not receiving notifications of their children’s school placements from the Gauteng Department of Education as the new school year approaches.

“Please help! Are schools full? What is going on?” asked on distraught parent.

Civil society organisation AfriForum has called on Chiloane to provide clarity on the problems experienced with school placements in Gauteng.

This action followed multiple complaints to AfriForum from parents in Pretoria and Centurion regarding incorrect or no placements for learners in the 2026 school year.

The problems, which were also seen previously, have resurfaced this year, include the lack of correspondence or feedback on placements received.

These issues, which parents reported, occurred despite placements having been in place since 16 October 2025.

“It is concerning that the placements have still not been completed by the first week of November,” Afriforum said.

Furthermore, incomplete communication about learners’ placement status puts parents under pressure.

“Conditional choices are accepted as final placements by the system even though it is not the learner’s or parents’ first choice,” it said.

“The placements are still ongoing, but there is a lot of uncertainty about when they will be completed and when the next group of learners will be placed.”

There are also many schools with available places that are now being filled with learners who are not registered on their lists.

Carien Bloem, head of education projects at AfriForum, said the system is supposed to make the process easier for parents and schools.

“However, after how many years, the Gauteng Department of Education still cannot manage to make the process run problem-free,” she said.

Bloem said they were investigating the situation and had made a serious appeal to Chiloane via an attorney’s letter to provide clarity on the problems.

The GDE did not respond to queries from Newsday by time of publication. Comment will be added if received.