The Gauteng Department of Education still has to place 377 children in grades one and eight in schools across the province.

The department managed to significantly reduce its backlog from 19 000 towards the end of January and promised that the remaining 377 will be placed by the end of this week.

On the other hand, the department received 19 536 new applications for other grades last month. So far, 15 657 pupils have been placed in a space of two weeks leaving a balance of 3 879 unplaced.

In total 331 625 applications were processed by the department and 327 369 children have been placed in schools.

“The department is satisfied with the progress made so far and believes that it has fulfilled the promise to find spaces for learners. More effort will be directed to placing all unplaced learners,” the department said in a statement.