LETTER: Reduction in pupil-to-teacher ratio should be central goal

The annual criticism of the matric results has been foreshadowed with commentary on the 30% pass mark metric. While the abysmal pass rate and dropout rate show the depth  of the crisis within our public education system, the fix begins with focusing on reducing the pupil-to-teacher ratio from its current greater than 40:1 ratio to less than 30:1.

First, the design assumption for a classroom, certainly those inherited from the old provincial education departments, is 30 children and one teacher. Overcrowded classrooms are just not a conducive learning environment. Reducing the pupil-to-teacher ratio allows for the improvement of the quality of outcomes by giving teachers more time and opportunity to properly assess and support each child in their charge. We are currently asking our educators to work continuously at 150%, it is just not a sustainable situation.

The reduction of the pupil-to-teacher ratio should thus be a central policy goal of government. The achievement of this policy goal will drive the construction of more schools in the right locations, and the recruitment and training of more teachers. The training of additional staff should be an obvious policy anyway. But there is no sign of new teaching training colleges being built and the capacity to train teachers being increased.

Certainly, there are other challenges to be addressed within our education system. Both teachers and schoolchildren need more support, but I can think of no better starting point and no policy with a bigger positive impact than the pursuit of a reduction in the pupil-to-teacher ratio.

Mark Townsend

Via email

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