Open the doors

Should a child’s geography determine their fate? I need clarity from those who process application forms at former model C schools. When a parent applies for their child’s placement in such a school they usually have to answer the question of whether the child stays near the school.

I find this kind of stratification class-discriminating. A child does not choose where to stay, and therefore should not be denied a place to study on the grounds that s/he does not stay close by. It smells of a tendency to exclude the non-suburban from accessing high quality education.

I believe it has more to do with socioeconomic status and income inequalities, in particular among different races.

It has to sink in that we black people were removed by force from places where economic activities were taking place and dumped far away from the cities.

These displacements are still felt by many black people, who out of their little pay have to feed and educate their kids and still spare half of their wages for transport so that they can get to work and back.

To compare travel expenses, Mdantsane is about 20km from the East London CBD as against Vincent’s 5km, so if you have a car you can do your own fuel calculations.

If you don’t, it may need two taxis each way and a round trip will then cost R50 to R60. That’s five days a week.

My plea is that children should be given access to quality education despite the area they are from, as long as the parents can afford the school and have applied on time.

We all want to educate our children so that they become selfsufficient and independent individuals.

— Sonwabo Canham, Sunnyridge East London (Social Activist)