Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube's recent parliamentary reply reveals a harsh reality: there are only 761 social service professionals left to cover South Africa's entire public education sector, and further expansion is blocked due to tight budget limitations. Due to this financial blockage, crucial rules to formalize school social functions have been in administrative limbo since 2020, leaving teachers completely alone to deal with the growing mental health crisis in the classroom.
Dr Marellis Vergottini, senior lecturer in social work at North-West University (NWU), has warned that South Africa's public school system is collapsing due to rampant classroom violence, severe teacher shortages, overcrowding and systemic hunger.
For millions of children across the country, schools are no longer safe havens for learning, but rather places defined by trauma and structural failure. Yet, the expansion of psychosocial support in schools has been halted due to a lack of funded provincial positions and budget constraints. This grim reality was confirmed by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube in a recent written parliamentary answer.
Gwarube said the Department of Basic Education recognized the seriousness of these growing concerns. Learner well-being is central to effective teaching and learning, she said, adding that schools need clear systems to identify learners who need support and refer them to appropriate services.
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The department's psychosocial model relied heavily on school-based and district-based support teams to handle initial identification and basic support, and learners who required clinical assessment were referred to the health department.
“Within the available provincial budget, the hiring, funding and deployment of school-based or district-based counsellors, psychologists and other psychosocial support personnel are primarily provincial responsibilities,” Guarrubé…