Gauteng online registration goes live

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the online school registration system is now “functional”.

Johannesburg - The Gauteng MEC of Education Panyaza Lesufi on Tuesday said – after an initial glitch – the online school registration system was now “live and functional”.

Last week on the first day of online registration, the system crashed under the weight of thousands of applications for school places for next year. Panyaza suspended the online registration and said the process would resume Tuesday morning at 08:00 AM.

However, the system was unable to go live at the scheduled time, causing a lot of frustration and anxiety among parents.

“I asked for an off day from the 11th and it wasn’t working. Panyaza must face reality and tell parents that the system isn’t working. I don’t know what my manager will say because I took a day off Monday and again today. I’m not leaving here ‘til they help me,” said a parent, who waiting seven hours outside the provincial education department offices to get an update.

On Tuesday afternoon Lesufi explained that the server at that time wasn’t ready to be used “due to GPS coordinates on the site not working”. The GPS coordinates enable the applicant to find schools that are closest to them.

“The system will be able to allow 20 000 logins per second. There maybe some problems, but the functionality will be there,” Panyaza said at a media briefing at the department’s offices in Johannesburg.

Lesufi said: “We went to Vodacom and they expanded the capacity to 20 000 per second from the 3000”.

The MEC apologised for the glitches and added that his department was aware there were parents who had no access to the Internet.

“People without internet would be able to go to their local community libraries, where they would be assisted with their registration.”

He urged people to utilise free WiFi spots in their areas to login to the site and register for their children.

Asked if the online registration was a good idea, MEC Panyaza said: “It was a wise decision and the way to go because the future is paperless and parents won’t have to lose their time at work”.

African News Agency

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