Advocacy group Equal Education has called on the Department of Education in Gauteng to release key information on exactly how bad the overcrowding situation is at schools.
While it has welcomed the commitment from the Department of Basic Education to reduce overcrowding in schools, Equal Education said it was “distressed” about the lack of information on the severity of the situation.
According to Equal Education, there have been reports of up to 70 pupils squeezed into a single classroom in Gauteng and, at times, more than 30 pupils staying home on some days due to the overcrowding.
“The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) is ducking and diving the handing over of information on exactly how bad overcrowding is in Gauteng’s schools. The GDE is also sitting on details related to how teachers, non-teaching staff and school infrastructure are distributed – information that is crucial to reducing overcrowding,” said EE researcher Katherine Sutherland.
EE stated that it welcomed the recent recognition by the ANC on the issue of school overcrowding. At the ANC Policy Conference in July, chairperson of the ANC’s Education Subcommittee, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, stated that school overcrowding must be urgently dealt with.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) had also announced a Special Intervention on Overcrowding in Schools. According to a stakeholder engagement meeting held in August with the DBE’s director-general Mathanzima Mweli, which Equal Education attended, the budget for the intervention is being discussed with the National Treasury.
“It is clear that overcrowding continues to plague Gauteng schools and undermines learners’ right to basic education. This acknowledgement of the urgency of school overcrowding is in direct contrast to former Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi stating that overcrowding in Gauteng is not such a big problem,” Sutherland said.
She referred to a media briefing on August 1, 2021, where Lesufi stated that “out of the 2 300 schools in Gauteng, only 57 schools have overcrowding challenges. Schools have been given mobile classrooms and only two to three of the 57 schools still struggle with overcrowding”.
Sutherland said that while it was promising that school overcrowding was being spoken of more frequently in government spaces, statements like these were “alarming” and showed a lack of understanding by the GDE of what school overcrowding is and how it should be measured.
“Up to now, government has tried to reduce school overcrowding mainly by providing mobile classrooms. As our research report on school overcrowding shows school infrastructure is only one of many variables to consider in reducing overcrowding.
“Providing hard infrastructure like classrooms is only effective in preventing overcrowding if a school has enough other related resources, such as teachers, non-teaching staff, and furniture,” Sutherland said.
She said that due to these reasons, EE had sent a request to the GDE more than two months ago for a meeting and to be given information, specifically on the following:
– A list of all overcrowded schools in Gauteng, where overcrowding is measured comprehensively by taking into account factors such as the workload of teachers, and how learners are spread across classes and grades.
– A report and justification on the percentage of teachers and non-teaching support staff that were distributed equitably in 2022.
– A forward-looking infrastructure development plan that takes into account the growth in learner numbers and prioritises infrastructure projects for overcrowded schools.
Sutherland said that to date, EE has not received this information or any indication that it is to come despite following up with the GDE on numerous occasions.
“The GDE’s non-responsiveness is unfortunately not unusual. After failing to deliver school meals during the Covid-19 lockdown, in 2020 the court ordered provincial education departments to send monthly reports to EE, EELC and SECTION27 so that we could monitor the success of the delivery of school meals. Despite these reports being court-ordered, the GDE repeatedly submitted their reports late. To make matters worse, the reports had very little valuable information. This pattern of disregard shows a severe lack of accountability by the GDE,” she said.
EE said it hoped that with the recent leadership change within the GDE, overcrowding will be taken seriously and addressed urgently.
Sutherland said that the new Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, was familiar with the challenges facing learners in Gauteng, given his former role as Education Portfolio Committee Chairperson in the Gauteng legislature.
“We hope to work well with MEC Chiloane and the GDE – this will require openness, transparency and accountability by the GDE to its constituents, which include EE learner members (Equalisers) and other school communities,” she said.
* GDE was contacted for comment. The article will be updated accordingly.
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
Education