The South African education system is characterised by a shortage of teachers and inadequate school infrastructure which largely contributes to overcrowded classrooms.
Because of this, in most government schools teachers struggle to deliver effective teaching to over 50-60 children.
There are however public educational institutions that are an exception, but at huge costs to those who can afford it.
And yes, there are also a few of the schools that battle with overcrowding, but where teachers still try their utmost to explore different ways on how they can deal with this, and look at creative ways in which they can teach effectively in those conditions.
The entire system is failing our children in terms of resources and class sizes, but the problem is bigger than that.
There is a teaching crisis in South Africa. The system is simply not producing teacher excellence across the board, and the resources and the overcrowding are crucial parts of the problems.
On paper the government every year invests a lot of money on education, but they are still overlooking the basics.
Until we look at the quality of our teachers and the circumstances in which they must teach, such as offering smaller classes, a better teacher-learner ratio and safer schools, we will be raising, by and large, a lost generation.
