The number of private schools has mushroomed in the Eastern Cape in the past decade.
The SA Institute of Race Relations says the number of independent schools has grown from 39 ten years ago to 154 in 2010, a 195 percent increase.
Researcher Jonathan Snyman says the number of independent schools in the country has grown by more than 44 percent, with the Eastern Cape and Limpopo showing the biggest growth.
He says the total number of independent schools in South Africa, which stood at 971 in 2000, totalled one thousand-399 in 2010.
Snyman said the situation in the Eastern Cape could be a result of the turmoil in the provincial education department.
"I think for the most part that would be the most obvious reason. Obviously the Eastern Cape is going through a lot turmoil in their education department and I think as a result a lot of parents are losing faith in the ability of the public education system to deliver and as a result are looking to put their children in private education," he said.
Meanwhile, the SA Institute of Race Relations says its concerned at the drop in the growth of public schools.
Snyman says in the past decade there has been a nine percent decline in the number of public schools.
He says only the Northern Cape showed a growth of 23 percent in the number of public schools over this period.
"Perhaps the concerning trend we found was the definite decrease in the number of schools in South Africa, especially public schools. However, that's not being off-set by the increase in private schools either, so we are having less and less schools in South Africa meaning that infrastructure is being put under a lot of strain as a result." Snyman said.
He says the Institute's analysis is based on data provided by the Department of Basic Education.
"Although there has been a strong increase in the number of independent schools, such schools still account for only 5.4% of all South African schools – up from 3.5% in 2000."
"In total, there are 1 910 fewer schools of all kinds today than there were in 2000.
Nationwide pupil enrolment has increased by 3% since 2000. There are, however, significant differences between public and independent schools. Enrolment in the former increased by merely 1.4% as compared to an increase of 76% in the latter," Snyman said.
"Obviously, there is a growing trend of parents preferring to send their children to independent schools, but independent schools still represent only a small proportion of South African schools', said Snyman.
"With about 30 pupils per teacher, the nationwide pupil-teacher ratio in public schools is almost double the ratio in independent schools, which have an average of only 16 pupils per teacher," he said.
