• Thabile Mange writes:
Since the dawn of our democracy, public schools have been struggling with overcrowding. This year, it’s worse.
Most classes have 45 to 55 learners. The number is too big for educators to handle.
• Also read: This is Thabile Mange
To add salt to injury, the Treasury has cut the budget for education. As a result, the Western Cape Education Department intends to cut the number of teachers. Yet the number of learners has increased, as indicated above. A trade union for teachers, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), has taken the WC Education Department to court to stop it from cutting jobs.
A few years ago, I had a debate on Facebook with Premier Panyaza Lesufi, when he was still the Gauteng MEC for Education, about overcrowding in schools. Lesufi said he would rather have more learners in class than in the streets.
My response was, “Overcrowding is a problem on its own. The government should come up with a solution rather than rationalising the issue.
It should build more schools as the population is growing. Overcrowding shows the lack of planning from the government side.”
In 2025, schools are still facing the same challenge. And no one, including the minister of education and teacher unions, is addressing the matter. Teachers are expected to teach big classes and produce good results. That’s unfair.
Lastly, most politicians send their children to private schools, where classes have 12 to 24 learners. There is no overcrowding there. This shows that our leaders have no confidence in the very education they are presiding over. Indeed we get the leaders we deserve.
