Schools in South Africa are characterised by overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of teaching staff and inadequate school infrastructure. All of these factors ultimately lead to poor educational outcomes because it strains learners’ ability to learn and receive quality education.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, national executive member of the African National Congress (ANC) party’s education and health committee says that an urgent plan needs to be put in place to tackle overcrowded schools.
Currently the recommended learner to teacher ratios stands at 30:1, but that is certainly not the reality in most schools, as they are often jampacked with up to 50 learners in one classroom with only one educator held responsible for their learning progress.
It is no secret that schools in South Africa perform poorly because of this issue whether It be on a national or international level.
“What is very urgent in Basic Education is to deal with overcrowding of classes right now. There is a programme that must be put in place to deal with it urgently” she said.
Dlamini-Zuma was speaking at the ANC policy conference in Johannesburg where she spoke about government's plans to address the matter and that they plan on doing so in the short term.
“They are looking at communities and schools to build extra classes instead of going through a long process. They have already started doing so and it is actually working out cheaper.”
Dlamini-Zuma added that this is a short-term plan because the need to decongest classrooms is far too urgent.
Although these measures are only focusing on short term fixes it is crucial that government continue to seek ways to tackle this matter for the long term because short term solutions are only beneficial for the time being and are not sustainable at all.
