On 14 January 2026, long queues formed outside district education offices in Gauteng, South Africa, as parents sought school places. Although it was the first day of the academic year, about 3,000 Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils remained unplaced. Families arrived early at Johannesburg's Morningside Teachers Centre as well.
Parent Itumeleng Moreki said she had applied the previous September and tried the online process again in December, yet her son's place was still unresolved. Education officials directed parents to district offices rather than individual schools.
When an online application failed to reach a classroom, the system's final interface became a physical line. For the children affected, the new school year began not with a lesson but with a parent waiting to recover a place.