Overcrowding at Nozuko Senior Secondary School in Mthatha is so bad that in one class there was no room for the teacher. Another has 124 pupils in it.
When the DispatchLIVE visited last week, four pupils were sharing a desk meant for two, which complicated movement for both pupils and teachers.
In one class a teacher was wringing with sweat. There were 110 pupils in the class.
In another class the teacher was standing by the door with no room for her inside the prefabricated structure.
School governing body chair Patrick Gola said the prefab classes had been obtained through parents’ fundraising.
One teacher, who has 95 pupils in his class, worries that this makes it difficult for him to provide the individual attention his pupils need.
Gola said the least crowded class had 54 pupils but that was still way above the recommended pupil-educator ratio of 40:1.
The most overcrowded class, had 124 pupils squeezed into one classroom.
Other classes that the Dispatch saw had 96 and 94 pupils.
Gola said the school’s infrastructure was old and outdated. Nozuko has two feeder schools within Ikhwezi township.
He said although there was another high school, Ngangelizwe, the school’s performance had caught the attention of parents and it was difficult to turn potential pupils away.
“The problem is the late applications. When the year ends the staff has an idea of how many pupils will be in a certain grade, only to get late walk-ins in January,” he said.
Gola said the school had ample land for building more classes.
Pupils at the school also feel the negative impact the overcrowding has on their learning with some pupils saying they cannot concentrate, especially on hot days.
Another pupil said many pupils use the congestion as an excuse to misbehave.
Education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani said Nozuko was among the schools prioritised for additional classrooms, but due to budget constraints all those schools were on hold.
“However, the school received two emergency classrooms [prefabs] from another school. Three more [prefabs] are on the way, also paid for by Nozuko SS,” said Pulumani...