Children as young as 5 are being forced to walk close to a marathon distance every day to attend school – now in searing February temperatures, and often on empty stomachs.
Children as young as 5 are being forced to walk close to a marathon distance every day to attend school – now in searing February temperatures, and often on empty stomachs.
Once there, a lack of learning materials, and a shortage of teachers further hampers their struggle to start off their education on the right foot. As education officials continue to promise solutions to the disastrous situation in Eastern Cape schools, pupils and teachers have been thrown upon their own meagre resources, and are battling under near-impossible circumstances.
At Sakhingomso Primary School, near Salem, attendance has dropped off drastically after the school's scholar transport service was stopped more than two weeks ago. The homes of the pupils are situated as far as 15km from the school. School starts at 8am and most of them arrive at school late.
Grade 8 pupil, Amanda Nyumka, said, “I try to leave early, before 7am, but I only get to school after 9am when school has already started.” The principal, who declined to give her name, said Grade R learners were those most disadvantaged by the lack of transport, since they were too young to walk such a long distance.
When Grocott's Mail visited the school on Wednesday, only five out of the 10 Grade R pupils had made it to school. One of the teachers, Margaret Mini, said some had missed important tests, such as the national assessment held recently.
When the school principal enquired about the transport problem, she was told by the service provider that the subcontractor had sold the bus used to transport the children. She said the Department of Education was aware of the problem and had promised to address it as soon as they had resolved their current financial difficulties.
In addition to the transport issue, the children – along with 1.6 million others in the province – had been left to go hungry, after the school nutrition programme was suspended. Sakhingomso teachers said it was difficult to cope under these circumstances, since most parents in the area were unemployed and relied heavily on social grants.
“One of the learners left school early because she was hungry and found it hard to concentrate,” said Mini. The staff at the school had since decided to take matters into their own hands, by buying bread for the pupils and bringing food to school.
Spokesperson for the Department of Education, Loyiso Pulumani, told Grocott's Mail this week that the department had been compelled to cut many essential services, such as temporary teachers, scholar transport and the nutrition programme, due to the mismanagement of funds. He said their expenses had "simply ballooned" over the past five years and, as a result, it had become difficult to provide these services.
Pulumani said transport would be restored to rural areas within the next two weeks, as these areas should not have been affected in the first place. "Other schools will be sorted out later on in April," he said. “I just want things to go back to normal,” said Amanda Nyumka.
