NAPTOSA concerned about reports of overcrowding at some Western Cape schools

CAPE TOWN - A week into the new school year and there remains concern around overcrowding in the classroom.

The Western Cape Education Department is projecting a higher learner/teacher ratio of 1 to 36.7 this year.

Director of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation, Basil Manuel: "And yes, we're getting reports of overfull schools, overfull classes, where there are promises teachers are coming and even that mobile classes will arrive, and this is disconcerting because we're already in the second week of school ending and this is not what the WCED promised."

Manuel warned that weaker learners would not get the attention they needed with more than 50 in a classroom.

"But there are far too many claims suggesting beyond 50, beyond 60 and there are claims of dumping, where certain high schools have been dumped with huge numbers of grade 8s and we understand there's in migration, but of course, you can't have your base being so large that it causes a bubble throughout the school for the next five years."

He said that large classrooms also put strain on teachers and contributed to the early retirement trend.

"These are people who still have ten, 15 years' service in them or ought to have and if they leave early, not only do they disadvantage the system because you're losing people with experience, but they disadvantage themselves because retirement isn't designed for people to be on retirement for the next 30 years."