Poor planning by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has led to severe overcrowding in Alexandra schools.
Today, the DA’s school readiness tour discovered that learners and teachers of Carter Primary, Dr Knack Primary School, and Realogile High School are ready for the 2023 Academic year. However, these schools barely function due to the lack of resources and overcrowding.
In Carter Primary, one Grade 1 class has 80 learners; in Dr Knack Primary, Grade 4 classes are the pressure point with an average of 55 learners per class; in Realogile High School, one class has 98 learners.
See images here, here and here.
These numbers are far above the average learner-per-teacher ratio of 31.4, which was estimated in the 2022 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
The DA is concerned that the department is unfairly expecting teachers to produce good results without providing necessary support.
The MEC and the department must prioritise building new schools in high-demand areas as well as resources timelessly. He must give schools enough budget to build additional classrooms where there are more learners than school capacity.
For good quality education to take place, learners need sufficient chairs, stationery, classrooms, science labs and nutrition.
Year after year, schools are expected to exceed their capacity; as a result, these schools have doubled their capacity.
It is the department’s duty not to mislead schools but match its placement demands with sufficient resources. For four years, Dr Knack Primary has been waiting for the department to rehabilitate its school, but to date, nothing has been done.
Infrastructure is a crucial component inhibiting teachers from being effective in maintaining a conducive learning and teaching environment.
As a result, the effects of overcrowding are causing issues with ablution facilities and poor performance.
Moreover, it is hard to manage discipline where there are too many learners. A teacher who was stabbed by a learner last year in Realogile High can attest to this.
The DA demands that GDE urgently provide these schools with sufficient resources.
The department must use online admission data to plan and allocate resources to schools before the new academic year starts.
The DA will submit questions to the MEC to establish interventions put in place to ensure that learning and teaching take place in a conducive environment.