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The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) received a record number of Grade 1 and 8 admissions applications for 2025.
Applications for these two grades for the 2025 school year has already closed. According to the department 102 680 applications were received through the online application portal.
This is an increase of 5 936 on last year’s on time window.
“We thank the parents who put in the effort to applying on time and helping us to plan for a place for their child in a school next year,” the WCED explained in a statement. “All applications received after the deadline will be considered late, to be considered only after those received on time.
Parents and guardians can still apply for these two grades via the online system until 12 May, but these will be flagged as late applications.
Those Grade 1 and 8 learners relocating to the Western Cape after 12 May, or who had not applied before this date for any other reason, will need to contact their district office for assistance as soon as possible afterwards. The WCED urged parents not to wait until the last minute to apply.
Schools now have a little over a month to consider all the applications received. Parents do not need to drop off their certified hard copies at this stage. They will only need to do so once they have received an offer from a school and accepted the offer as their final choice of school.
The outcomes of the online applications will be communicated from 30 May, a day later than first announced to accommodate the national elections taking place on 29 May.
“Parents must then accept or decline successful offers before 14 June,” the department stated, “and we encourage them to do so as quickly as possible. It is especially important for parents to confirm their choice of school speedily when they have received offers from multiple schools. These parents are essentially ‘double parking’ on the system, stopping schools from offering these places to other applicants until they make their choice.”
If a learner’s spot has not been confirmed by 14 June the system will automatically confirm their top-ranked school that has made an offer. All other offers will then be removed, so that those places can be offered to other learners.
Parents who do not receive an offer on 30 May should not be disheartened, places always open up as parents confirm their final choices. “We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to place every learner whose parents applied on time as quickly as possible,” the department assured.
The next application window for Grade R applications and transfer requests for Grades 2–7 and 9–11 will takes place between 1 to 16 August.
