Education
Whether her Department agrees with the assessment that 24 schools and 700 new teachers are needed to eradicate the issue of overcrowding in Western Cape schools; if so, what plans are in place to address this challenge?
This is needed per year to keep up with the influx of learners that are moving to the Western Cape. Each year we see an estimated 20 000 – 25 000 learners enter the province from other provinces in search of a better education. It will take more than this to completely eradicate overcrowding.
The overcrowding at certain schools is not necessarily an indication of lack of classroom space in the department. Available classroom space might not be in the same location where overcrowding is experienced. The medium of instruction at a school, either allows for additional learners to be accommodated or excludes them based on the Language of Learning and Teaching [LoLT].
The WCED plans the building of 16 new schools over the MTEF period 2017/18 – 2019/20. The building of these schools is intended to bring relief to the pressure caused by growth in learner numbers in the Western Cape, and is what we can accommodate in our budget.
The WCED plans to build 220 additional classrooms over the MTEF period to either increase the capacity at some schools and to bring immediate relief to over utilised schools.
Furthermore, the WCED placed 122 mobile classrooms during the 2016/17 financial year and a further 34 will be completed by the end of this month.
The WCED will continue to place mobile classrooms to address urgent over utilisation and to address increase in learner numbers as a short term solution. Teachers, however, remain a concern.
