As the Gauteng department of education is grappling with the placement of pupils for the 2025 academic year, with some schools receiving higher applications than they can accommodate, experts believe building more schools in areas where there is demand could be the solution.
Dr Anthea Cereseto, CEO of the School Governing Body Organisation, believes these problems will continue until there are enough school places in the areas where they are needed.
“If more people move to urban areas, more schools are needed in those areas. The MEC must make sure there are enough spaces and do what is necessary to provide them — this is difficult for some provinces as there is not enough money or time to build the schools needed,” she said.
Cereseto said the Gauteng education department has had to cut back the number of teachers because National Treasury has reduced its funds for paying teachers as the country does not have money.
“The unions can’t do anything about it except to point out the harm it will do to children who will have been taught in bigger classes, meaning lowering the quality of the education provided.”
She said when capacity is reached there needs to be a workable way for schools to determine capacity beyond which the education quality will be compromised; schools must not be forced to take more pupils.
“The first thing that goes is school discipline and without discipline there cannot be proper teaching and school safety is also threatened. The workload of teachers becomes too much and then they start to not care about doing a good job because they are too stressed and tired,” Cereseto said.
Education expert Prof Mary Metcalfe believes parents are looking for the best schools for their children.
She said in some cases it reflects population growth in an area, but for most parents it's a case of if these schools get good matric results their child will get good matric results.
With primary schools it is probably a case of going for good schools that families believe they can transport their child to every day. Schools with good reputations are the ones that are in high demand, Metcalfe said.
On Sunday, the Gauteng education department said parents favoured some schools more than others. The department identified schools that received an overwhelming number of applications that exceeded what they could accommodate.
According to the department, 292 primary and 277 secondary schools are regarded as high-pressure schools.
Mogomotsi Tlhoaele, a parent and a former school governing body (SGB) chairperson at Laerskool Theresa Park, which is categorised as a high-pressure school, believes the high-pressure schools in Pretoria North get more pupils because people have migrated to new developments, mainly informal settlements and flats and town houses, in the suburbs,
He said the situation is worsened by people in neighbouring townships opting to enrol their children in former Afrikaans schools using fake addresses, while some are given addresses by those living in the vicinity of the schools. .
“Another factor is discipline in the schools which the school and SGBs maintain. Township schools tend to have incapacitated SGBs, which leads to a lack of discipline in schools, forcing parents to take their children to schools where they think discipline is enforced.
“Another contributing factor is parents who can no longer afford private schools but opt to enrol their children in public schools whose school fees are less than private schools. All these factors lead to more parents seeking placement while the department is building no schools,” he said.
Tlhoaele said the department needs to build more schools to address the issue of enrolment. Transparency regarding the placements must be made available to parents and the SGB as it leads to parents blaming the online system.
“Parents, especially those who live around these schools and are victims of traffic and noise supplied by these schools, feel angry if they are unable to get a space when they did everything correctly. The department must act swiftly against any allegations of wrongdoing associated with enrolment,” he said.
All parents want their children to get a good education but not everyone can access it because there is not enough space. High-quality education needs to be available in all schools. More money is needed to build schools and provide qualified staff and other resources
— Dr Anthea Cereseto
He said it does not help the department and parents to increase the capacity of schools in response to rising demand because doing so overpopulates the schools, which already have excessive numbers.
He said the department has not built new schools in Pretoria North since 1994 and there seems to be no appetite to do so. There is a mushrooming of mobile classrooms which nobody wants as there are no sporting activities and infrastructure in these mobile schools. This is a cause of tension among community members.
“We have seen the rise of private schools in the area which parents only use for grade 1 and thereafter look for space from grade 2 and 7 in public schools,” he said.
Cereseto said the problem is there are a limited number of schools that offer high-quality education.
“All parents want their children to get a good education but not everyone can access it because there is not enough space. High-quality education needs to be available in all schools. More money is needed to build schools and provide qualified staff and other resources.
“There is no money. We need more employed taxpaying people, but to get to that point, we need better education and more appropriate skills. There needs to be work for people and education must equip them. This is a chicken and egg situation. The solution cannot be delivered overnight.”
Cereseto concurs that the better the school does in exams and tests and the more opportunities the school provides the more parents want their children to attend those schools.
“The community can do a lot to improve the school’s reputation as well. If the community works hard and together at supporting the school, protecting it from vandalism, unsafe and criminal activities, taking an interest in the school activities, reporting to the school on children who should be at school but are loitering, promoting the importance of education and so on. Where communities join hands with the school much can be done. I have seen this happen, even in difficult areas.”
Tlhoaele said the issue of the (1:40) teacher-pupil ratio must be abolished.
He said the department must abolish the quintile ranking system as it provides a tag that parents associate with the quality of education in schools.
“Schools that are lower ranked are regarded as offering poor education, which is not necessarily the case. But parents still have that perception because schools in townships don’t have the same infrastructure as those in the suburbs.”
He said the department must build more schools around suburbs, upgrade township schools so they resemble those in the suburbs and build new schools of modern standards offering more subject choices. The department needs to provide schools with teachers as overpopulating schools is straining the quality of education.
With the new Bela Bill, where grade R has been made compulsory, the situation is going to become worse, he said.
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