Schools are re-opening today and millions of learners are returning to class for the 2024 academic year and the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA) says overcrowding in public schools has become a great concern. This comes as more than 20 000 learners are still not placed in schools in Gauteng alone.

NAPTOSA executive director, Basil Manuel, said that overcrowding in public schools has led to a decrement in the quality of education. Manuel said that there has been an influx of children especially in Gauteng and the Western Cape. He said even though the two provinces have built extra classes and opened new schools, there are still more learners coming than the schools can accommodate. "If we want quality education, if we want all our kids to be able to read and write, there must be sufficient space in schools so that attention can be paid to every child. Manuel said that the Department of Basic Education needs to address the issue. "We expect that there will once again be a measure of overcrowding. We are saying overcrowding is a temporary thing, it cannot be a permanent feature in our education system. When we have learners coming in that have to be accommodated, we then have to plan for the following year," Manuel said, adding that they are confident that most schools across the country won't experience any hiccups.

Meanwhile, the Minister if Basic Education Angie Motshekga said they were taking full responsibility for the printing and translation errors on some of the matric class of 2023 scripts. She revealed that Limpopo province was mainly affected in this regard, but pupils have been given the marks for the questions that had errors. Motshekga said that they acknowledged their errors and made sure that learners were not affected by this. "Ourselves, as the sector, we detected it and dealt with it by compensating the learners. So, really, it's two incidents that Umalusi refers to, and we reported it to Umalusi."