Parents who are fed up over issues with the Gauteng Admissions website can get one-on-one assistance from schools and Gauteng Department of Education officials.
The MEC of education, Panyaza Lesufi, this morning announced that 8 500 Gauteng Department of Education employees will be deployed to all schools across the province from tomorrow until Monday to assist parents having difficulties with the website.
“Those getting ‘error’ when logging in, they can go to a school, someone will then enter their details and assist them,” Lesufi said.
Although the site was back online yesterday afternoon, with thousands of hits recorded within seconds of its switch on, many parents are still reporting issues with the system.
@Lesufi #gdeadmissons2017 im so angry, i’v been trying to apply nd the only thing i get is “an error occurs while processing your request”.
— thato serutla (@SerutlaThato) April 20, 2016
#Admissions2017 @Lesufi Trying to register my child since 4:30 this morning! Wat a JOKE or am I not being patient MEC? Get real MEC
— Mohammed Seedat (@Mo_Seedat79) April 20, 2016
@Lesufi I’ve been back online trying to register since 3am and get an Error message in the final stage. How do I resolve this?
— Tabby Tsengiwe (@TTsengiwe) April 20, 2016
@Lesufi I am still getting an error! I am losing my mind #Admissions2017
— Matlhodi (@Tlh0dis) April 20, 2016
@EducationGP @Lesufi I can’t select learner from drop down? And the learner already exists in DB?& can’t re -add Now what ?#Admissions2017
— Vìçrí0 (@Vicari0) April 20, 2016
Some also report that they have not received any assistance from the department’s call centre, which is supposed to be providing help for anyone experiencing challenges.
“I have managed to register this morning and my child has been listed as going to Afrikaans high schools in our area but we are an English family. I called the help desk numbers and none of them are working. Who can I contact for help as I am at wits’ end here,” an htxt.africa reader told us.
The call centre has extended its operating hours to between 7:30am and 6pm on weekdays and 7:30am to 2pm on weekends.
For the long term until June, helpdesks will be open for you to get help.
Below is a link to the list of all the help desks, you don’t need to be intending to register at the school to be able to get assistance.
HELP DESKS FOR REGISTRATION AND APPLICATION DURING ADMISSION PERIOD
Only 320 000 spaces available
Over 188 000 parents have so far been able to register new profiles on the site, by 9am today, more than 80 000 had successfully applied for a place for their child in either grade one or eight for next year.
“We’ve got around 200 000 spaces in grade one and just about 120 000 spaces in grade eight. We’re looking at round 320 000 spaces…and we believe that we’ll get almost 500 000 applications,” Lesufi said this morning.
All successfully applications will know be notified via SMS between 24th June and 25th July whether or not their child has been offered a place at the school they applied at.
Parents will be given a period of seven days to accept or reject placement offers.
Hack attempts on the system
Within a few hours after the Gauteng Admissions site switch on, 13 hack attempts were made on the system, which the department said it managed to foil to avoid any harm done.
“This is a matter of serious concern to the department,” it said.
“I’m touched by the cries and frustrations of parents and I will do everything in my power to minimise their pain,” Lesufi added.