Overpopulated schools, overcrowded classrooms and empty promises
Overpopulated schools, overcrowded classrooms and empty promises from the Mpumalanga Department of Education are still a reality in the Middelburg area.
Schools in Mhluzi and Extension 24 are flooded with learners and there’s desperate need for proper infrastructure or more schools.
Statistics in some of the schools are shocking where there are up to 57 children in a grade five class and about 47 in grade two.
Research done by Dr Hafiz Muhammad Inamullah and Jehangir Shah in their study, “The Impact of Overcrowded Classrooms on the Academic Performance of the Students at Secondary Level”, shows that learners in smaller classes develop more positive attitudes, perceptions and human relationships. They can also function more effectively as members and leaders of groups.
According to Dr Inamullah and Jehangir Shah, learners learn basic skills and subject matter better and they can think more creatively and divergently while also achieving higher marks.
They identified eight negative impacts of large and overcrowded classrooms on both teachers and learners:
1. Poor academic performance
2. Poor health of the students
3. Drop out of the students
4. Moral corruption
5. Social derivation
6. No effective teaching
7. Stressful life of the teachers
8. Discipline problems
Principals are afraid of losing their jobs and are intimidated by the Mpumalanga Department of Education if they try to expose the irregularities.
Meanwhile the Mpumalanga Department of Education is still optimistic about the situation and say that they have plans in place to address the problems.
“We work on a 10 day statistics plan. On 29 January 2016 there will have been 10 school days. We ask the principals to give us the statistics on how many learners there are in the school and also in the classes. After that we analyse the data and make decisions depending on the outcome,” says Mr Jasper Zwane, Head of Communications of the Mpumalanga Department of Education.
Counting from 13 January 2016, when schools started, to 29 January 2016, readers would note that there have already been 13 days of school and not 10.
It also confirms further suspicion of Departement’s supposed plans and lack of management to prevent overcrowding in classrooms and overpopulated school.
According to Mr Zwane, Aerorand Primary School will be build at the end of the year.
However, the Mpumalanga Department of Education has promised to build Aerorand Primary School for the past nine years.
At the end of 2015, the Department promised that there will at least be mobile classrooms in January 2016. Needless tot say, there are no signs of the mobile classes or any building material indicating that the school will be build.
In the meantime, both learners and teachers are the victims of the lack of management from the Mpumalanga Department of Education.
