A long, cold and lonely road to the classroom

THE sun has not yet risen. It is 5.30am and nine-year-old Bheko Thusini has already washed his face, put on his shoes and tucked in his shirt — he is ready for school.

This is his daily routine: he rises at the crack of dawn to prepare for his 45-minute walk to Mgombane Primary School, 3km away.

He eats his buttered bread and takes big sips of his sweet, milky tea. Soon he will leave the comforts of home.

A gentle breeze blows across eMangweni village near Nqutu in the far north of KwaZuluNatal, making the morning even colder.

Bheko has put on a pullover and has his hands thrust deep into his pockets to guard against the 5°C temperature.

It is 6.30 as Bheko begins to walk through the dry, brown grassland on uneven dusty pathways and along a winding dirt road — all so that he can get to school on time.

“When I get to school I am already tired,” said Bheko as the Sunday Times accompanied him to school on Thursday morning. “It’s far, but I do get used to it,” he said.

He is not the only early riser in the Thusini home.

By 6am, Bheko’s elder brother Nhlakanipho was already running late for the start of his school day.

He goes to the high school a further 3.6km up the road.

According to Stats SA, this is the reality facing nearly seven in every 10 South African children who walk to school each day.

It is a long walk — exactly 3km from his home to the school — and it is cold. And often it is very lonely, as most mornings Bheko will leave his home alone and only meet up with other schoolmates some- where along the road.

The route goes through several homesteads, over a river, across a grassless soccer field and, eventually, to a dirt road. Bheko hardly takes notice of the cattle, chickens, goats and dogs he encounters.

Despite being just nine, he is used to the walk.

He has even got used to the finger-numbing cold.

“It’s better in winter. Summer is too hot. I sweat a lot,” he said.

Also, in summer he is often caught in the frequent Zululand downpours. Sometimes he has to sit and wait for the rain to stop, but if no end is in sight, he walks and gets soaked. He and his schoolmates have no other choice.

Bheko’s mother, Zidelile Thusini, said that even if there was public transport in the area — when the Sunday Times visited, just one taxi and two bakkies drove past — she would not be able to afford it.

Thusini is unemployed and often struggles to buy food for her family.

She said she was not worried about Bheko’s safety, but she was not happy that he had to walk so far to school.

“It’s a long distance, but there’s nothing I can do. As long as he gets an education, he has to do it,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

Sandile Ndlovu, an organiser with NGO Equal Education in Nqutu, said that although Bheko’s walk was undoubtedly long, his was not the most trying.

“Some [pupils] walk for 12km or 14km. It takes them two or three hours to get to school,” he said.

Ndlovu has spearheaded the Equal Education campaign to get the KwaZulu-Natal education department to provide transport for more pupils.

“Just here alone [in eMangweni], two or three buses would make a huge difference,” he said. — Matthew Savides

Aspects of the policy have drawn criticism.

The general secretary of the NGO Equal Education, Brad Brockman, said the policy was flawed because it “lacked details about funding and monitoring, which will make implementation and accountability difficult”.

He added: “The policy does not give clear criteria for determining who is eligible for transport. It talks about ‘needy learners’ but leaves it up to provinces to decide what this means. This will mean that there won’t be standardised access, which is meant to be one of the goals of the policy.”

He welcomed the fact that the policy gave priority to pupils from Grade R to Grade 3, as well as pupils with disabilities.

“It is rational for government to say that they will only provide transport to learners where their closest school is far away,” Brockman said. But the proposed policy changes stipulated that pupil transport would not be available in areas where there was public transport. “This does not consider whether this is safe and affordable to learners.”

Mhlanga did not address specific concerns about the policy.

Some walk for 14km. It takes them two or three hours to get to school