Education
With reference to this claim in her 2021 Western Cape Education budget speech: “Now that we have data from the annual SNAP Survey to indicate the exact areas of growth and demand, our Head of Department has recently approved 342 additional teaching posts in areas where the demand for places is growing quickly. This is in addition to the 429 posts added in 2020.”:
(1) What is the detailed breakdown of the annual SNAP Survey, including (a) the breakdown of learner population growth per education district in the (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020 academic year and (b) the details of class sizes per quintiles;
(2) (a) what is the detailed breakdown of the allocation of additional teaching posts per school in the (i) 2019, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021 academic years and (b) what criteria were used for determining this allocation?
(1) (a) (i) and (ii) Annual SNAP Survey enrolment:
District | 2018 | 2019 | 2019 - Growth | 2020 | 2020 - Growth | 2021 | 2021 - Growth |
Cape Winelands | 159 144 | 160 842 | 1 698 | 162 954 | 2 112 | 165 168 | 2 214 |
Eden and Central Karoo | 128 637 | 130 041 | 1 404 | 131 122 | 1 081 | 132 823 | 1 701 |
Metro Central | 139 529 | 142 184 | 2 655 | 144 444 | 2 260 | 146 865 | 2 421 |
Metro East | 197 013 | 201 572 | 4 559 | 205 582 | 4 010 | 209 866 | 4 284 |
Metro North | 180 850 | 184 276 | 3 426 | 188 805 | 4 529 | 193 519 | 4 714 |
Metro South | 191 109 | 193 836 | 2 727 | 195 488 | 1 652 | 197 121 | 1 633 |
Overberg | 45 819 | 46 554 | 735 | 47 779 | 1 225 | 48 607 | 828 |
West Coast | 67 606 | 68 918 | 1 312 | 70 210 | 1 292 | 71 459 | 1 249 |
Total | 1 109 707 | 1 128 223 | 18 516 | 1 146 384 | 18 161 | 1 165 428 | 19 044 |
(b) The average class size per quintile for 2020 was as follows:
District | NQ1 | NQ2 | NQ3 | NQ4 | NQ5 |
Cape Winelands | 31 | 34 | 37 | 38 | 29 |
Eden and Central Karoo | 29 | 38 | 39 | 37 | 29 |
Metro Central |
| 40 | 40 | 37 | 33 |
Metro East | 41 | 43 | 43 | 39 | 35 |
Metro North | 44 | 38 | 41 | 38 | 31 |
Metro South |
| 42 | 42 | 38 | 35 |
Overberg | 30 | 36 | 37 | 34 | 27 |
West Coast | 27 | 36 | 37 | 40 | 29 |
*2020 ASS |
*Note that information relating to class sizes is collected via the Annual Schools Survey (ASS), not the SNAP survey.
“Average class size” is not a good proxy to measure how many learners are in fact in any given class. The following observations in the data should be noted:
- The average class sizes for rural schools (NQ5) are significantly lower than for urban schools (NQ5), contributing to a lower average class size for NQ5 schools; and
- The largest cohort of Public Ordinary schools (31%) is allocated in NQ5, thus representing a larger variation of class sizes, which influences the average class size for the quintile.
(2) The detailed breakdown of additional posts to ordinary public schools is attached. The posts allocated from 1 April 2021, in addition to the additional posts allocated in 2020 and retained from 2021, are reflected in the last column to the report attached.
In total 394 posts were allocated from 1 April 2021 – 342 additional posts approved from additional funding received from Provincial Treasury and 52 posts from posts that could be redistributed as a result of a reduction in excess educators and other posts that could be identified for redistribution.
The allocation is based on the analyses and recommendations made by the 8 education district offices in the province and approved by the Head of Department in the following manner:
- Allocation of additional posts for unplaced learners where schools had functional classrooms or mobiles provided to accommodate unplaced learners.
- Allocation of posts to schools to alleviate pressures on overcrowding in classrooms, especially schools with higher teacher/learner ratios.
- Allocation of additional posts to accommodate language and learning and teaching (LOLT) requirements at schools that could accommodate unplaced learners i.e. Xhosa, Afrikaans and English.
- Allocation of additional posts to assist schools with specific curriculum needs in foundation phase, senior phase and FET phase.
