JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng Education says more than 77,000 applicants are yet to be placed, with Grade 8 pupils making up the largest share.
Of the total number of pupils who remain unplaced 31,277 are Grade 1 applicants while 46,187 are Grade 8 applicants.
Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile revealed this during a briefing on Sunday.
During the briefing he gave an update Grade 1 and Grade 8 learners placement for the 2027 academic year, scholar transport as well as school funding.
READ | Gauteng Education MEC to update on 2027 school readiness
According to Maile the department has identified more than 139,000 available spaces but acknowledges that these are not necessarily in the schools or communities where demand is highest.
Maile said the biggest challenge is matching available capacity with pupil demand.
“The existence of available spaces, which sits at 139,024, as stated, does not necessarily mean that they are located at the schools or in the communities where demand is highest.
“This distinction is important. Gauteng does not experience uniform pressure across its schooling system. Some schools have available capacity, while others receive substantially more applications than they can reasonably accommodate.
“Consequently, the challenge is not simply to count available spaces. It is to align those spaces with learner demand, geographical accessibility, school infrastructure and the practical circumstances of families,”Maile explained.
To date, more than 267,000 Grade 1 and 8 pupils have been placed for the 2027 academic year.
READ | School placement | Thousands wait to go back to school