I read with such dismay about the overcrowded classrooms that our kids are having to deal with this year again.
One Grade 4 class in Bishop Lavis has more than 70 pupils, while the Grade 7 class at Intshinga Primary School in Gugulethu has 78 pupils.
Just imagine 78 pupils in one class.
Teacher-pupil ratios are a hot topic every year, and it always surprises me that it surprises the authorities.
I remember in my school days when we were 25 in a classroom and there were complaints about the ratios already.
Obviously, the annual complaints and protests do not help.
Of course, we should complain and demand it be addressed. But we can’t renege on our responsibility as parents entirely.
As parents, we can’t stand by and put our children’s future in the hands of government officials.
Even if they could and wanted to help, it would take years to balance out the ratio.
So we, as parents, have to do something about it.
I know we don’t want to because we believe it’s entirely the government’s duty to educate our children. But is it really?
We need to move our children’s education to the top of our priority lists.
We have become so used to handing our lives over to the government, that even our children’s future doesn’t seem to matter enough to us any longer.
I don’t know what the solution is. But standing outside your child’s school with a placard is not it.