16 Mar 2015

Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse, has admitted that there are classes with 50 students in government schools.

Responding to a question in Parliament on March 12, he explained that this oversubscription was caused by government’s efforts to ensure that all eligible learners were provided with educational opportunities.

Boteti East MP, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had asked the assistant minister to state the position of his ministry regarding classes that had more than 50 students under the care of a single teacher.

He also wanted to know whether that was reasonable, and whether the teacher can adequately give students the necessary attention and diligently examine their work and produce good results under those conditions.

Mr Autlwetse replied said the ministry desired to implement the recommendation of the Revised National Policy on Education which called for a teacher-student ratio of 1-30 and 1-35 at primary and secondary schools respectively.

“The ministry is nonetheless presently constrained by shortage of critical inputs like classrooms to reach this ideal situation. To alleviate shortage of classrooms, during the 2015/16 financial year my ministry will secure and install prefabricated classrooms in oversubscribed schools,” Mr Autlwetse said.

He said the position of his ministry is that a class of 50 students is too large for one teacher. ENDS