Limpopo school transport closures enter third week

Vuwani pupils are not the only Limpopo children losing out on education; pupils from Lamvi Primary School, in Makuya village, outside Tshilamba – which is 90 minutes away from Vuwani – have also not been going to school for the past fortnight.

This was after angry parents shut down the school in a bid to get the department to listen to their pleas about providing transport for their children.

For months, the parents have been pleading for scholar transport for their children, who have to walk up to 4km to school every day.

The parents said the long walk was not only a security risk, but was also too strenuous for children who would then still be expected to put in a full day of school work. As a result, they have stopped the children from going to school until the matter is sorted.

The Limpopo Department of Education, responsible for addressing these needs, has allegedly failed to provide them with transport.

The angry parents said the department had promised in April to provide a free bus to transport pupils.

However, that had not happened, they said, so they had shut the school down out of desperation.

The pupils have not been attending school for the past two weeks after parents locked the gates, saying they will ensure the school remains closed until the department addresses the situation.

“It is not safe for little children to walk 4km daily just to get to school. The department is playing hide-andseek with us.

“We have been waiting patiently for them to provide the transport, and every time we speak to them, all they do is ask for more time.

“We have had enough now and have become desperate for them to listen to us,” said Johannes Madoba, a member of the task team elected by parents to sort out the transport issue at the school.

Madoba said education officials had met with parents in April.

“They promised that a bus would be made available and would be running within two weeks. But more than four months have passed with no action.

“Those two weeks have since become months, but nothing is being done. The learners get to school tired and it makes it difficult for them to concentrate in class. They urgently require those buses.

“We all know that cases of learners attacked on their way to school have been on the increase. So we are saying it’s no longer safe for small children to walk that distance to get to school,” he said.

Madoba vowed that they would continue with the school shutdown until the department addressed the situation.

When contacted for comment, provincial spokesperson for the Department of Education Dr Naledzani Rasila said the department was aware of the shutdown. He said he needed to contact the relevant offices to find out what was delaying the process of providing transport to the school. – Health-e News

‘It’s not safe for children to walk 4km to school’