Pretoria - Township schools should copy the behaviour of former Model C schools and set conditions and demand that they are met by the Gauteng Department of Education before admitting more pupils to their classrooms if they are to avoid overcrowding.
This was according to the DA spokesperson for education in the province, Khume Ramulifho, yesterday during an unannounced oversight inspection of three Soshanguve schools experiencing overcrowding and a lack of resources that are critical to quality learning and teaching.
Visiting MJ Mgidi Secondary School in Block X, Botse Botse Secondary School in Block GG, and Thorntree Primary School in Soshanguve South, he said it was clear that school governing bodies (SGBs) in the no-fees schools in the townships were not as firm as the ones in the former Model C schools.
He said this had created a problem because the classrooms were overcrowded, with uninspiring teacher-to-pupil ratios. At the same time, these schools have being waiting since last year for critical things such as mobile classrooms, furniture and plumbing maintenance.
He said there was a problem when a classroom had more than 80 pupils, because quality learning and teaching could not take place in such an environment.
“The governing bodies in the former Model C schools set their conditions beforehand. If you want us to take in more pupils, you give us this number of resources we want. If you do not, we are not taking more.
“When it comes to most of our township schools, they just believed in good faith that if you say you will deliver additional mobile classrooms, then the department will do so. Unfortunately, they become complacent and the department ends up not delivering, and they put more pressure on our schools,” said Ramulifho.
“At the end we expect schools to perform and be competitive, while we forget that we have not actually done much to ensure that learning and teaching conditions are conducive,”
He said MJ Mgidi Secondary School had been waiting for mobile classrooms since last year. The school experienced interruptions for three days last week over parents’ complaints about overcrowding and allegations of space being sold to some parents.
Beside some overcrowded classrooms, Botse Botse Secondary School experienced vandalism in November, when criminals stole electricity cables and plumbing infrastructure. The department fixed the electrical problems but not the plumbing, so the school uses mobile toilets.
SGB members Simon Moekwa and Ketlane Mathebula said the problem now was that the stench from the mobile toilets was unbearable.
“We are even planning to find a way to carry (the toilets) out of the school because they are so close to the feeding scheme,” said Moekwa.
The department said they had been rolling out interventions to provide mobile classrooms to all schools in need, and to repair all schools that experienced vandalism in the past couple of years.
Pretoria News