Johannesburg – Some schools in Gauteng have become so overcrowded with as many as 50 learners crammed in one class amid a pressing infrastructure and teacher shortage.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng made the revelations after recent oversight inspections to assess school readiness for the 2025 academic year.
The DA said it found several infrastructure deficits and overcrowded classrooms.
“For example, Glenvista High School, Diversity High School, and Die Fakkel are struggling with overcrowded classrooms, with some schools experiencing learner-teacher ratios as high as 1:50,” Sergio Isa dos Santos, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, said on Sunday, (26 January 2025).
“Over and above dealing with the maintenance of schools, the Gauteng Provincial Government should also focus its attention on building new schools.”
Dos Santos said the DA also identified that “quintile misclassification” was impacting funding.
“Schools like Rosettenville Primary School and Laerskool Montanus are quintile 5 institutions or fee-paying schools, however, most parents are not paying school fees which severely impacts the schools’ ability to self-fund necessary maintenance,” explained Dos Santos.
“These schools urgently need infrastructure repairs due to leaking roofs, broken sewage systems, and rusting balconies, which pose health and safety risks for learners.”
Dos Santos called on the Gauteng Department of Education to comprehensively review the outdated school quintile classifications amid a pressing school infrastructure crisis hindering learners’ educational experience.
“The DA demands that the GDE review these classifications and prioritise maintenance and upgrades to ensure conducive learning and teaching environments for all learners and teachers,” Dos Santos said.
“The DA Gauteng Provincial Government would re-evaluate the current school quintile classification.
“This would ensure that schools accurately reflect the current socio-economic status of their learners, rather than relying solely on historical classifications of suburban schools as quintile 4 or 5.”
Dos Santos added: “Like the DA in the Western Cape, the DA in Gauteng would pursue top-up funding to ensure that quintile 4 and 5 schools that receive less school fees than the funding provided by the state to quintiles 1,2 and 3 schools are brought on par with the funding levels of schools classified in quintiles 1-3.
“This would enable schools to address issues such as infrastructural challenges.”
