In response to a written question by the FF Plus, the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, indicated that the Department is currently not considering the possibility of appointing additional teachers. Instead, the Department's solution is to expect teachers to take on additional periods and to cut back on the year's curriculum.
For many schools this means that its number of teachers will in effect be reduced. In many cases, school governing bodies are unable to keep employing those teachers that they have to pay. This is because parents are not all able to pay school fees.
If the Department is not willing to employ these teachers as well as others for schools with governing body posts, South Africa's teacher corps will shrink significantly.
In addition, as more educational grades are gradually phased in during the next few weeks, more and more venues will be needed. The Department has restricted schools to a maximum of 21 learners per classroom, but if one takes the social distancing requirements into account then there are many classrooms that cannot accommodate more than a mere 18 learners.
Whatever the finer details may be, every classroom must have a teacher (or at the very least, someone to supervise).
The FF Plus requests that the teacher-provision formula, which is currently one teacher for every 35,4 children, must be adapted for the rest of the year to take these extraordinary circumstances into account. Without it, this academic year cannot be salvaged.
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