Cruelly ironic

WHO would have thought that 21 years after the end of apartheid, we would still be writing and reading stories earlier this week about children who walk four hours to and from school each day and those who still learn under trees?

Unfortunately, these stories are not black swan events.

The provincial education department admits that one of the causes of this unfortunate situation is that the department has been plagued by financial woes for the past eight years owing to the overspending of its budget, with the lion’s share going towards teacher salaries, and infrastructure development falling by the wayside.

A 2013 Statistics South Africa report showed that KZN had the greatest number of pupils who walked to school and also the highest proportion of those who walked more than 15 minutes to get to their transport.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said last week that transport for pupils was crucial in reducing the drop-out rates and that the intention was for a national pupil transport policy to be implemented this financial year.

What our stories illustrate is that while we wait for the state to get its act together, for many South Africans the concept of “previously disadvantaged” remains cruelly ironic.

There can be no question that the state continues to fail these children. Unhappily, those children failed by the state or even by their own parents, grow up to be society’s problem.

While we must ask the government the difficult questions and demand that it frees the children from the cycle of poverty its decisions are trapping them in, we The Mercury community must also challenge ourselves and ask how we can ease the plight of these children.

This editorial departs from the norm in that its primary aim is not to offer an opinion but to appeal to you as the reader, advertiser and whatever other relationship you have with this paper to partner us as we return to the Morning Star Primary School in Colenso with practical solutions to their situation.

We will leave it to you to decide how you or your organisation can help. Our doors and ears are open to hear how you can open your hearts, and together we can contribute to making a child’s life a little better. We cannot afford to sit and watch.