59% of pupils in SA walk to school – StatsSA

Our grandparents used to say that back in their day, they “walked barefoot in the rain and across mountains” to get to school, but this is still the reality for most schoolchildren.

Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke yesterday released Statistics South Africa’s report, The National Household Travel Survey in SA, which found that South Africans took 45 million trips, mostly by foot, between January and March last year.

More than 17.4 million (41.7%) South Africans walked all the way to their destinations, followed by 10.7 million who used taxis and 6.2 million who used a car/truck. Of the 17.4 million, more than 10.1 million were pupils walking to school.

StatsSA said across all provinces, travelling to school (36.8%) was the main reason for undertaking a trip, followed by trips to work, shops or a religious institution.

The report also showed that about 10.1 million pupils walked all the way to their educational institutions, down from 11 million in 2013.

“Across provinces, the highest percentage of pupils who walked to their educational institutions were found in KwaZulu-Natal (20.3%) and Gauteng (17.7%), followed by Eastern Cape and Limpopo both at 14.6%.”

StatsSA also said more than a quarter (24.3%) of pupils in Limpopo went to school before 6.30am, which indicated the percentage of children who travelled more than 30 minutes to get to school, even if it was not the closest school. The vast majority (79.6%) of the 10.1 million children who attend school take less than 30 minutes to reach school.

More than 59.4% of pupils in SA walked to school, while 22% travelled in vehicles hired by a group of parents, 16.6% travelled in private transport and only 22% used public transport, either taxis, buses or trains.