Eighty pupils per classroom is what teachers at three Midrand, Johannesburg, schools have had to deal with for the past three years.
This is double the acceptable number of pupils in a classroom, according to the National Association of School Governing Bodies (Nasgb).
Yesterday parents took their frustration at overcrowding to the doorsteps of Allan Ridge High School, Dulcie September Primary School and Dr Mathole Motshekga Primary School in Rabie Ridge where they shut down the institutions. The situations at the schools is so dire that it makes teaching and learning difficult.
The three schools are meant to accommodate about 1,200 pupils each but are taking in between 2,600 and 2,800 pupils.
This prompted parents in the area to shut down the schools on Tuesday, barely a week after schools reopened. The parents, who gathered at the high school, called for the department to provide at least 10 mobile classes for each school, as well as furniture and toilets, before they could reopen.
So bad is the overcrowding that teachers sometimes stand at the door while giving lessons, to make room for more pupils.
Parents also complained about a lack of furniture at the schools leading to pupils having to stand or sit on desks during lessons because of a shortage of chairs which sometimes results in conflict among the pupils.
“Here at the Allan Ridge High School, our children sometimes don’t have chairs to sit on and this has created so much animosity among them that they end up fighting for seats,” said Cindy Teffo whose child is in grade 10 at the school.
“Some learners get to school as early as 6am to book a chair, which they will likely use throughout the day, meaning those who were unlucky will be without chairs.”
Allan Ridge SGB chairperson Eunice Monyedi said the problem started during the Covid-19 shutdown.
Monyedi said the SGB had been engaging with the department since 2020 when they noticed that the intake of pupils was increasing drastically but have received no joy, prompting parents to take extreme measures.
“This has been a problem which started gradually for the past three years and it has been falling on deaf ears. We just want our children to have a conducive learning environment, that’s all.”
Pupils at all three schools have not been able to return to class and have been on a rotational schedule leading to high school pupils only getting four hours of school per day.
A teacher at Dulcie September who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were struggling with discipline at the school and have in some instances used their own time to allow pupils to catch up
“We started noting an increase during Covid-19, when the department would bring learners from other schools to our school.”
In a roster seen by Sowetan, the timetable has been divided into two. The morning session for grade 8 to grade 9 starts from 7am to 11am and the afternoon session would see grade 10 and 11 pupils attending from 11.30am to 3.30pm.
Pupils at Dulcie September only attend classes two to three times a week to create space for them to learn.
“We want schooling to go back to normal. How can a grade 11 learner only get four hours of school? And a primary school learner get two days of school,” one parent said.
According to Nasgb, the pupil to teacher ratio is one teacher to 40 pupils.
“What these schools have is double the ratio and it should not be happening. It is killing the quality of education given to these learners because there is no way the teacher will be able to deliver in those kinds of conditions,” said general secretary Matakanye Matakanye.
“We call on the department to build more schools and hire more teachers. It is contradictory that we are seeing closing of some schools, while some schools are overcrowded. The department of education must step up.”
The parents have vowed to keep the school closed until all their demands met.
Last week head of the Gauteng education department Edward Mosuwe said the growth of the population in the province was moving faster than the infrastructure growth at schools.
“The Gauteng education system is the fastest growing in the country. Last year alone we had a total 103,000 more learners who got into our system which means we need 103 new schools. Over time we have seen a system that has been on an exponential growth in a way that begins to grow at a pace faster than the department can build schools.”
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