Hendrick Makaneta
BASIC education continues to experience challenges with regards to the capacity of schools. South Africa has approximately 15 million learners and 80% of these learners are found in public schools. With more than 25 000 schools, one can be forgiven for assuming that overcrowding would be a thing of the past, especially if you divide the number of learners by the number of schools. In reality the challenge of overcrowding in public schools is deeper than we can imagine because of the distinct categories of schools. Many learners attend no fee schools and that is where overcrowding is experienced.
In some cases, the teacher-learner ratio is one to 70 and for us that is a cause for great concern. All these challenges of overcrowding take place amidst a huge budget allocated to the department of basic education by the national treasury. The key question that must be asked is, why is it that overcrowding continues to persist even when the department gets a bigger chunk of the country’s coffers? Could it be that huge as it is, the allocated budget is not enough to build more infrastructure that can alleviate the problem of overcrowding?
I wish to argue that there is a need to restructure the allocation of funds by the department. Whereas essential items such as school nutrition should be maintained, government should find a way to prioritise building of more schools by reducing their allocation to private schools. Independent schools can survive without government subsidy.
The other thing is allocations that are made to public fee-paying schools. Such allocations should also be revised with a view to ensure that more money is channelled toward appointing more teachers in township and rural schools.
It is encouraging that R31.8 billion was allocated for the 2023/24 medium term expenditure framework but what is discouraging is that less than 7% of this amount has been allocated for the Accelerated School Infrastructure Development Initiative.
The sad part is that the allocated amount, which is R2,1 billion, must be used, not only for building more schools, but also for eradicating pit latrines. It is for this reason that it will take time for government to eradicate all pit latrines given the low amount that is allocated. Government should spend a minimum of at least R5 billion on school infrastructure as a whole.
Failure to address the question of overcrowding will exacerbate the problem of drop-out rates which in the main affect learners from poor households. Of course, it will take a while before the challenges can be eradicated given the growing population in South Africa. But whilst we are working on finding long term solutions to the problem, the government should encourage willing private schools to explore the possibility of participating in transfer programmes. Such transfer programmes should be aimed at utilising the existing spaces in private schools to accommodate some of the learners from overcrowded schools.
Whilst it is encouraging that government plans to increase spending in education, we cannot rule out the impact of inflation and other economic factors at play. That is why we have always said that government alone may not be able to fully resolve all the issues that we face. It is for this reason that the private sector should also come on board to assist in the provision of infrastructure.
The challenge of overcrowding in schools is also linked to the availability of teachers. There is no doubt that most teachers will retire in the next eight years. Universities have indicated that they are ready to close the gap that will be created by those teachers who will exit the system in their numbers. Whilst it is true that universities continue to produce hundreds of graduates annually, it is the quality of the cohort of graduates that remains under scrutiny. It is therefore necessary to balance the teacher-learner ratio correctly to ensure that quality teaching is not hampered.
The other emerging challenge is the introduction of new subjects that require an innovative approach to teaching. As we continue to battle the issues, we should not forget that the Fourth Industrial Revolution presents its own challenges that may require that we alter the old way of doing things in the terrain of education. We are duty bound to prepare the ground for future generations, especially because of the real threat posed by the inevitable loss of some of jobs soon. At end of the day, the government as the custodian of hundreds of thousands of our learners countrywide, should take a lead by modernising the entire system of education for the general wellbeing of our learners who happen to be our future leaders.
We cannot afford to set our learners up for failure. Plans have been made, what is left is preparation and implementation of all the plans.
Hendrick Makaneta is an education activist completing an LLB degree at the University of Pretoria