Driving need for pupil transportation in KZN
EVERY child has a right to basic education, as guaranteed by Section 29 of the Constitution. But thousands of children in Kwazulu-natal have to walk up to 90 minutes to get to school.
For the 2016/17 financial year, the KZN Department of Education allocated R186 million for pupil transport, R1m more than in 2015/16.
At least 326 schools and 44 490 pupils are benefiting, but there are still many children, some as young as six years old, forced to walk for more than 4km to get to their nearest school.
For Aphiwe Ngubane, 7, from Greylands, walking 6.5km to Mbonisweni Primary, in Hambanathi, outside Tongaat, is tiring. Every morning her mother, Nonhlanhla Ngubane struggles to convince her to go.
“It’s not that she doesn’t like school because she always comes back and tells me the exciting things she’s learnt each day. But the journey is exhausting and when she gets home she just wants to sleep.”
Ngubane wishes she could pay for private transport for her daughter but cannot afford the R500 monthly fare from the R1 000 she earns as a part-time domestic worker, plus the R380 child support state grant.
Aphiwe, who leaves home just after 6am daily, nervously nodded her response when asked if she and her friends sometimes hitch-hiked.
“I’ve scolded her so many times because I’m scared they could be kidnapped and I won’t know where to start searching. But the older kids who walk with her admitted they hitched when it rained.”
Luyolo Mazwembe of Equal Education said statistics indicated KZN had about 2 million pupils who walked to school – the highest in the country.
“We’ve repeatedly asked how is it that only R186m is allocated to scholar transport in KZN compared with R336m by the Eastern Cape, which has the second-highest number of pupils walking to school. No one can justify what is going on because it is unjustifiable.”
He said pupils faced all sorts of dangers, including being raped or robbed, and having to cross swollen rivers
“When a pupil goes to a school of need, it means they have no choice but to go to that school as is often the case in the rural areas… In Nquthu, we have a primary and a high school separated by a fence. The department says only the high school qualifies for scholar transport, but they have not received it either.”
National Teachers Union spokesperson Alan Thompson said scholar transport had been a bone of contention for about seven years.
“The situation is especially dire in the rural areas and it’s contributing to the dropout rate because exhausted children have a hard time academically competing with their peers who are well-rested. Some are also walking on empty stomachs because of the poverty in their homes.”
Thompson said the government had created an opportunity for unscrupulous vehicle owners to take advantage of parents by transporting their children in unroadworthy cars at a cheaper price.
“It is sad when innocent lives are lost in a crash because pupils were being transported in an unroadworthy car due to the lack of proper transport. We’ve seen plenty of cases and more lives will be lost that way unless something is done.”