Johannesburg North in dire need of additional schools due to increasing new developments in the area

1 March 2021

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted oversight inspections at three schools in Cosmo City, and one school in Northriding, and discovered that there is a dire need of additional schools in Cosmo City due to overcrowding in classrooms.

Despite the fact that there is a rotational learning and teaching system, the number of learners in classrooms remains too high. This also makes it difficult for learners to adhere to the health protocols such as social distancing.

While Cosmo City Primary School 2 has a capacity of 1200 learners, they currently accommodate more than 2125 learners as they continue to allow admission. Cosmo City Primary School 1 has a capacity of 1080 but currently have 1765 learners. Cosmo City Secondary School is also overcrowded with 2000 learners.

These schools are in dire need of additional mobile classrooms, however there is not enough land to place these classrooms, leaving the school with no choice but to use sports facilities as learning spaces.

The major challenge is that there are only eight public schools in Cosmo City, four being primary schools and four being secondary schools. As the area continues to expand with new housing developments, there is a need for additional schools to accommodate the number of learners in the area.

Furthermore, safety and security remains a challenge for Cosmo City Secondary School, as three burglaries have already taken place, where 52 computers and three laptops had been stolen.

The DA calls on the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi to ensure that his department reduces underspending by ensuring that they build more schools in Johannesburg North to avoid overcrowding in classrooms.

We also call for an urgent co-operation between the provincial and local government so that proper planning can be done to accommodate the demand of more schools in the area as a result of new developments.

Issued by Khume Ramulifho,DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, 1 March 2021