Gauteng Education Dept to Introduce New Ranking System

With the aim of assisting parents to choose the best schools for their children in the province, the Gauteng Department of Education will soon introduce a ranking system that will rate both township (which are no-fee schools) and former model C schools (a term used for former white government schools) on several criteria.

In his talk at the announcement of the online registration period for 2018, the MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, mentioned that parents tend to choose former model C schools over township schools, regardless of a school’s pass rate and other credible indicators. He said in 2016 township schools had a better matric pass rate and it was former model C schools that were “dragging the province down”.

According to the department, the number of schools that had an increase in 100% pass rates last year were predominantly township schools, with more than 13% of them attaining this mark. The pass rates of fee-paying schools went down slightly from 91.2% in 2015 to 91% last year, while no-fee schools improved their pass rates from 77.9% in 2015 to 79% in 2016.

As of 2018, the things that will be taken into account to rate Gauteng schools will include the pass rate, teacher performance and qualification, and the performance of the school’s governing body. The department has also announced many other upgrades and changes to the online admission system, which will only receive applications for Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils going forward.

According to the report, the system now has an extra two servers making it a total of six, and will be able to process 50 000 applications per second, which is twice the capacity of last year. The MEC made it clear that parents should use reliable numbers when applying online as they would only be given seven days to refuse or accept an admission to a specific school before the placement would be given to another applicant.

The date for applications opened on May 2 and will close on June 12. In addition to public libraries and Thusong Centres being available for parents without Internet access, the department has also introduced more contact centres around the province for parents who may need assistance.

Parents can make applications for either Grade 1 or Grade 8 by visiting www.gdeadmissions.gov.za. Once they have submitted the online application, they will be sent a waiting list number via SMS or email, and will need to submit all the other required documents to the relevant school.

Remember that if you need financial assistance to cover your child’s school fees, or know of somebody who does, they can also apply for a Personal Loan which can be worked out to suit their needs and what they can afford.