To complete the Unisa DSAR25 placement form, fill in your student number and module code, enter the host school’s details and your mentor teacher’s information, sign and date it, then take it to the school for the principal’s signature and official stamp. Scan the stamped form and email it, together with your signed indemnity form, to the Teaching Practice Office (TPO) email address for the province where your school is located. Submit no later than 30 April to give the TPO its roughly 30-day verification window.
Who Has to Submit It
The DSAR25 is required of every Unisa student registered for a teaching practice module within a Bachelor of Education (BEd), Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), or Diploma in Grade R Teaching, where the practice will take place at a school inside South Africa.1University of South Africa. Teaching Practice Placement Information The obligation is tied to the module code you registered for, not to your year of study.
If your placement school is outside South Africa, including other SADC countries, the DSAR25 is the wrong form. Use the DSAR27 instead and submit it to teachsi@unisa.ac.za.2University of South Africa. DSAR27 – Practical Teaching Placement Form for Students Practising Outside South Africa
The Deadline and the 30-Day Window
Submit your completed DSAR25 by 30 April. The TPO needs roughly 30 days to verify the school and finalize your placement, and that window stretches during the peak period when thousands of students are submitting at once. Filing well before the deadline matters because an incorrectly completed form is not rejected outright. It gets sent back for correction, and anything bouncing back in May can put your entire practice semester at risk.
Where to Download the Form
Get the DSAR25 PDF from the Unisa website under Study → Undergraduate Studies → Forms & Codes, or through the College of Education’s Teaching Practice Office pages.3University of South Africa. DSAR25 Practical Teaching Placement Form for Students Practising in South Africa Save a working copy before you start. If the stamp or signature step goes wrong later, you will not want to redo every field.
Filling in the Form
The form is divided into two sections. Section A covers a single school placement. Section B exists only for students splitting their practice across two different schools, and must be completed in full, with separate stamps and signatures, for each school. If you are practicing at one school, leave Section B alone.
Your Student Details
Start with your Unisa student number, full name, and contact details. Then mark the module code you are registered for by placing a cross next to it in the printed checklist.4University of South Africa. DSAR25 – Practical Teaching Placement Form for Students Practising in South Africa Check the code against your registration confirmation. Marking the wrong one routes the form to the wrong department and delays everything.
School and Mentor Details
Enter the province, the city or town, the name of the school, and the school’s telephone number and email address.4University of South Africa. DSAR25 – Practical Teaching Placement Form for Students Practising in South Africa Record your mentor teacher’s details. This is the qualified teacher at the school who will supervise your classroom work. Enter the specific start and finish dates of your practice period.
The school you choose must offer your registered teaching practice subjects in the relevant phase. A school that does not teach your subject at the correct phase level will not satisfy the placement requirements. Unisa publishes a list of available schools on its website as a starting point, but you are not limited to that list, and the TPO can help arrange an alternative if you cannot find a suitable school on your own.1University of South Africa. Teaching Practice Placement Information
Principal’s Signature and School Stamp
This is where most forms get stuck. The host school’s principal, or a designated representative, must sign the form and apply the school’s official stamp. The stamp confirms the school can accommodate you; the signature confirms the principal agrees to the arrangement.4University of South Africa. DSAR25 – Practical Teaching Placement Form for Students Practising in South Africa A form without the stamp, or with an illegible one, is treated as an incomplete submission and comes back to you.
Go to the school in person. Phone and email are useful for setting up the meeting, but the stamp has to be physically applied to the paper. Scan the signed form into a clear PDF. If the stamp is faint or the signature is unreadable in the scan, redo it before you send anything.
Submitting the Form
Email the completed, stamped DSAR25 to the TPO address for the province where your school is located:5University of South Africa. Teaching Practice Office – Contact Us
- Eastern Cape, Free State, and North West: teachec@unisa.ac.za
- KwaZulu-Natal (North and South): teachkzn@unisa.ac.za
- Western Cape and Northern Cape: teachnfw@unisa.ac.za
- Gauteng: teachgp@unisa.ac.za
- Limpopo and Mpumalanga: teachlmn@unisa.ac.za
- SADC and International: teachsi@unisa.ac.za
Put your student number and “DSAR25” in the subject line. Attach your signed indemnity form along with the placement form. A submission missing the indemnity form is incomplete. Send from your Unisa email address rather than a personal one to reduce the chance of the message being filtered as spam.
After You Submit
Keep the confirmation email. The TPO uses the 30-day window to verify the school information you provided and update your academic record, and once the placement is finalized the host school appears in your student profile. If you have heard nothing after 30 days, contact the TPO coordinator for your province using the numbers on Unisa’s Teaching Practice Office contact page.5University of South Africa. Teaching Practice Office – Contact Us
One rule catches students out: once your placement is finalized, you cannot change your host school without written approval from the TPO. If circumstances force a change, such as the school closing, your mentor teacher leaving, or you relocating, contact the office immediately rather than showing up at a different school. Hours worked at an unapproved school will not count toward your module.
Pre-Send Checklist
Most rejected forms fail on preventable errors. The biggest is a missing or illegible school stamp. Close behind: forgetting to sign and date the form yourself, submitting without the principal’s signature, marking the wrong module code, leaving the mentor teacher section blank, or naming a school that does not offer your teaching subject in the correct phase.
Before you scan and email, confirm each of these:
- Student number entered correctly
- Correct module code marked
- School name and contact details complete
- Mentor teacher section filled in
- Start and finish dates entered
- Your own signature and date present
- Principal’s signature present
- School stamp clearly visible in the scan
- Signed indemnity form attached to the same email
If every item checks out, send it, and send it early enough that a return trip to the school for a clearer stamp will not push you past 30 April.