Western Cape teachers worry over threats to quality as classrooms overflow

Although the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will maintain the current number of teaching posts in 2026 to stabilise the system amid budget uncertainties, educators say this measure falls short of addressing growing pressures. 

Daily Maverick spoke to two high school teachers in Claremont and another from a primary school in Khayelitsha, who raised concerns but wished to remain anonymous. 

One highlighted the strain of overcrowded classrooms: “Managing an overcrowded class makes the teacher’s job incredibly difficult. In reality, these classes become uncontrollable.”  

He said classroom overcrowding had the potential of increasing the risk of pupils dropping out of school.

“It goes beyond the impact on teachers and has a much broader impact on society as a whole. The recommended teacher-to-student ratio is 1 to 35, which is already quite high in my opinion, and ideally it should be closer to 1 to 28. However, in many cases, this ratio has risen to 1 to 50 or more, leaving little to no opportunity for individual attention within the classroom,” he said.

He said teachers simply could not be expected to adequately cover their subjects under these conditions. Students across all levels of ability were affected: weaker learners did not receive enough support to improve or even pass; average learners struggled to achieve good results; and those considered to be high achievers could fall short of reaching excellent or outstanding performance levels.

Another teacher said that in her already difficult school environment, where crucial resources were lacking, classes were overcrowded and administrative duties overwhelming. She said maintaining the current number of teaching posts would surely hinder her ability to deliver quality education.

“We’re doing the students a disservice by putting so many kids in a classroom. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to the kids. We see some of our most vulnerable students: those with special needs, those who require that little extra attention so they can level the playing field, the ability to support them is not there,” she said. 

Teachers across the frontlines of Western Cape schools have voiced serious concerns about overcrowding and strained resources that continue to hamper their ability to deliver quality education. Teachers say that maintaining the present level of teaching posts, without any increase, will do little to relieve pressure on learners and staff, especially in schools already struggling with large class sizes and inadequate support.

This comes after the WCED announced that no reduction in teaching posts would take place for the 2026 academic year, a move aimed at stabilising the province’s educational landscape amid ongoing fiscal uncertainties. In a recent circular sent to schools, WCED Head of Department Brent Walters outlined the staffing processes for 2026, confirming that the Basket of Posts allocation for 2025 would be fully retained.

“We will be able to provide for 35,934 posts, and schools will receive their individual staff establishments for 2026 on Friday, 29 August 2025. This follows consultations with teachers’ unions and School Governing Body (SGB) associations regarding the total number of teaching posts for the 2026 school year,” said education MEC David Maynier. The WCED is the only provincial education department that has announced its basket of posts. 

Fewer teachers, full classrooms

Last year, due to budgetary constraints and fiscal sustainability goals, the WCED reduced the total number of teaching posts by 2,407 for the 2025 school year due to a budget shortfall of R3.8-billion over three years.

Read more:  ‘The system is going to collapse’ – union warns Western Cape over plans to slash 2,400 teaching posts

“We chose to protect critical learner support services like school nutrition and transport, school norms and standards payments, and support for learners with special education needs. But we know that our decision to reduce posts placed significant strain on our schools,” said Maynier.

Stable teaching posts, but future funding hangs in balance

On what measures were being taken to address ongoing fiscal uncertainty affecting education staffing in 2026, Maynier said the Western Cape had been advocating for additional support for the education sector since 2024.

“We have consistently raised this through the Council of Education Ministers, and we are supporting the national minister to take the concerns of provincial education departments to the national government,” he said.

Maynier said the WCED was collaborating closely with other provinces to help Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube in discussions with the National Treasury about securing extra funding for the education sector. He thanked all teachers, principals and officials for their ongoing support for learners, emphasising that their efforts had been crucial in sustaining a stable education system for the children of the Western Cape.

While the teaching post allocation remains stable, the department faces lingering uncertainty about future budgets. Maynier acknowledged the challenge of balancing growing learner numbers with limited fiscal resources.

“Unfortunately, we continue to face significant fiscal uncertainty over the medium term. Responding to growth is dependent on having more certainty regarding the budget, and so we will only be able to make decisions about this once we have more budget certainty for the 2026 school year”.

Infrastructure boost planned

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union in the Western Cape (Sadtu) has expressed outrage at the zero increase in the basket of posts for 2026, despite collectively supporting the option to maintain the status quo for stability.

During the consultation with the WCED Head of Department, two options were proposed. Option one involved declaring further excess educators in 2026 and redeploying them to other schools. Sadtu, however, rejected this as it would recreate instability. Instead, all unions collectively supported option two, which involved maintaining the status quo with no reduction or redeployment of educators. This approach was advocated as a means to “bring more stability to the system”.

Sadtu provincial secretary Sibongile Kwazi emphasised the consequences, saying the situation had already placed pressure on school governing bodies, and would further strain their budgets since they were compelled to provide funding for the additional posts in 2026.

The total number of educators will stay at 35,934 for 2026. The implications for the pupil-teacher ratios are as follows:

• The primary school ratio will stay at 1:35
• The secondary school ratio will remain at 1:37
• The system ratio will remain at 1:36

The union also pointed out opportunities missed for increasing the number of teachers, connecting this to the need for comprehensive reviews of key systemic programmes. Kwazi noted, “The hiring of more educators could have been possible if the Annual Systemic Evaluations and the Back on Track initiative had been revisited.”

Infrastructure initiative

To address the urgent demand for school places and alleviate overcrowding, the WCED is implementing an ambitious infrastructure initiative.

“We are undertaking a massive Rapid School Build programme which will build 29 new schools in the next three years, as well as additional classrooms at existing schools, to create additional school places to accommodate demand,” said Maynier.

A teacher explained that overcrowded and underfunded schools led to a litany of downstream effects on students and staff, but despite this, there were still people working in education who tried to go above and beyond every day to deliver quality education and to make sure that students didn’t bear the brunt of funding deficits. 

“We don’t have a shortage of teachers. We have deteriorating working conditions that are not suitable, and people are refusing to [accept] them,” she said. DM