Parents of learners in the Eastern Cape are refusing to back down in their legal fight to force the provincial education department to address overcrowding in schools.

A group of determined Eastern Cape parents returned to the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Mthatha to fight against overcrowding at schools, where at times there are close to 100 children in a classroom.

The parents have children attending Attwell Madala High School, Enduku Junior Secondary, Dudumayo Senior Secondary and Mnceba Senior Secondary. In many cases, they have been fighting overcrowding in vain for the entire duration of their children's schooling careers.

While the provincial department of education, under the threat of several court orders, has constructed some additional classrooms, the parents' legal team says their clients have no intention of backing down. They have asked for a judge to be appointed to oversee the department's efforts to address overcrowding in the province's schools.

Their latest legal action, heard last week by the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Mthatha, comes as Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane warned that he feared austerity measures implemented by National Treasury might cause even worse overcrowding at schools.

"When this application was launched on 20 August 2018, the school communities saw it as an unfortunate but necessary culmination of their yearslong effort to obtain emergency infrastructure for their schools...