Overcrowding - frustrated teacher ready to call it quits

[caption id="attachment_39313" align="alignright" width="405"] ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Pearston Primary School teacher Althea Speelman hit the headlines last year when it was revealed she had to teach 123 Grade 2 pupils in a single classroom due to a teacher shortage. Picture: EUGENE COETZEE[/caption]

AN Eastern Cape teacher who made headlines last year when she was forced to teach 123 children in one classroom has become so frustrated by the ongoing education crisis that she has decided to throw in the towel.

Althea Speelman, of Pearston Primary School near Somerset East, said she would resign and be jobless at the end of the year rather than endure the "endless stress" brought on by the debilitating teacher shortage in the province.

And the situation was getting worse, not better, she said yesterday.

"Everybody is stressed and the painful part is our employers do not care, because they are not at the coal- face of the problem," she said.

Speelman, 41, is one of many teachers in the province finding it difficult to cope with the increased workload caused by the teacher shortage, along with an increase in the administrative work they are expected to do. - Zandile Mbabela