Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has conceded that overcrowding in schools is a dire problem with negative effects.
“It is a serious problem. Schools are carrying double the capacity and that is going to impact negatively on learning and teaching and infrastructure in all aspects,” she said.
Motshekga visited four schools in Diepsloot and Cosmo City in Johannesburg on Wednesday to monitor the first day of the academic year.
She said overcrowding was a national problem which also affected safety of pupils and teachers.
“From Limpopo to Lusikisiki [Eastern Cape], and that is why cabinet has approved a programme, a special intervention, which we will roll out from the next financial year to work with provinces to deal with overcrowding.”
Last year the department reviewed overcrowding in schools nationally and has approached the National Treasury for funding for more classrooms.
“We won’t put up mobiles [classrooms], we will build more classes using [the] community, because sometimes you just need four classrooms and you don’t need to build a whole school,” she said.
The Treasury would provide funds to help the department work with communities to build more classrooms.
Everything possible was being done to place pupils, she said. .
“For now they [schools] are registering all the children they have on record and we will have a sense in the next 10 days where the spaces are.
“I know it is frustrating for the parents. I will also be frustrated if on day one I don’t know where my child is going to go,” she said.
“Some areas are responding by asking churches to accommodate children, some areas, I am told, are opening closed colleges. So we are doing everything to place them.”
Despite the frustrations parents had with online admissions applications, the system would not be scrapped.
“It [admission problems] didn’t come with online applications. Even when I was MEC we had problems placing children and there was no ICT programme which would tell us where the spaces are, where the learners are.
“This online process helps us have a clear picture of where the places are, where the children are ... we have more overcrowding, we have more problems, but they didn’t come with online registration,” she said.
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Motshekga concedes overcrowding in schools is a problem
Image: Alaister Russell/The Sunday Times
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has conceded that overcrowding in schools is a dire problem with negative effects.
“It is a serious problem. Schools are carrying double the capacity and that is going to impact negatively on learning and teaching and infrastructure in all aspects,” she said.
Motshekga visited four schools in Diepsloot and Cosmo City in Johannesburg on Wednesday to monitor the first day of the academic year.
She said overcrowding was a national problem which also affected safety of pupils and teachers.
“From Limpopo to Lusikisiki [Eastern Cape], and that is why cabinet has approved a programme, a special intervention, which we will roll out from the next financial year to work with provinces to deal with overcrowding.”
Last year the department reviewed overcrowding in schools nationally and has approached the National Treasury for funding for more classrooms.
“We won’t put up mobiles [classrooms], we will build more classes using [the] community, because sometimes you just need four classrooms and you don’t need to build a whole school,” she said.
The Treasury would provide funds to help the department work with communities to build more classrooms.
Everything possible was being done to place pupils, she said. .
“For now they [schools] are registering all the children they have on record and we will have a sense in the next 10 days where the spaces are.
“I know it is frustrating for the parents. I will also be frustrated if on day one I don’t know where my child is going to go,” she said.
“Some areas are responding by asking churches to accommodate children, some areas, I am told, are opening closed colleges. So we are doing everything to place them.”
Despite the frustrations parents had with online admissions applications, the system would not be scrapped.
“It [admission problems] didn’t come with online applications. Even when I was MEC we had problems placing children and there was no ICT programme which would tell us where the spaces are, where the learners are.
“This online process helps us have a clear picture of where the places are, where the children are ... we have more overcrowding, we have more problems, but they didn’t come with online registration,” she said.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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