30 years of democracy: The long walk continues for SA's schoolchildren

EASTERN CAPE - In his maiden State of the Nation Address 30 years ago, the first president of South Africa to be democratically elected, Nelson Mandela, said that “everywhere we must re-inculcate the culture of learning and teaching and make it possible for this culture to thrive”. 

But all these years on, thousands of children still struggle to get to school.

Last month, the Khula Community Development Project and three Eastern Cape school governing bodies (SGBs) - represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) - filed a potentially game-changing case in the High Court in Makhanda.

They ultimately want scholar transport for all qualifying learners at the three schools - which include SeaView Senior Secondary School, Mneketshe Junior Secondary School and Toyise Senior Secondary - but also across the Eastern Cape and for the department to be slapped with an order to report back to the court on its progress.

The provincial Transport Department’s spokesperson, Unathi Binqose, says they are “certainly not opposing the provision of scholar transport to those learners who qualify for it [from] the three schools in the application”, and that a draft order has been agreed to between parties in line with this position.

Binqose says, however, that “in due course, the department will deal with the rest of the issues raised in the application and will oppose the structural interdict in [its] current form”.

In the meantime, in the papers, Khula director Petros Majola says every year, an average of almost 20,000 qualifying learners in the Eastern Cape do not get scholar transport.

The above is according to figures Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga gave Parliament last June.

Furthermore, says Majola, this year is worse.

Indeed, the department confirms that some 37, 000 are not being catered for.

“There is simply no doubt the demand far exceeds the provision. In terms of the data we have, there are over 140,000 learners who require scholar transport across the province and currently, we are providing the service to 103,000 learners,” Binqose says, adding: “We know we need to cater for that gap as well, but we take comfort in the fact that the majority who require it are getting it.”

He also says they are working with the Education Department, adding that opening new schools in the area is taking some of the pressure off.

“Sometimes we are hamstrung by issues relating to [the] budget, but we are trying to do a bit more with the little we have, and some of the things we’ve taken up to compensate for the scholar transport issues include the Shova-Kalula Bicycle programme - where we are handing out bicycles to those learners who live in areas where the roads can accommodate such things as bicycles,” he adds.

In the meantime, many of the learners whose plights sit at the heart of this case brave long distances over rough terrain and on foot to get to school now.

Eyewitness News walked home with 17-year-old Sibusiso Somgidi, a grade 11 learner at SeaView Senior Secondary School.

Sibusiso says he wants to study mining engineering after school and build a better life for his family, to show his appreciation for everything they have done for him.

It can take him almost two hours to navigate the rolling hills and winding rivers between his home and school. The part he dreads the most is a secluded forest of dense and indigenous bushes he sometimes crosses in the dark.

“You might be robbed or attacked,” he says.

Sometimes someone from home waits for him on the other side, to ensure he gets through safely.

By the time he gets to his front gate, he is spent.

Sometimes he walks on an empty stomach. Sometimes he even does the trip both ways twice to attend afternoon classes that last until late into the night.

But sometimes this is not the case.

“I get tired and I am so exhausted. I don’t have the energy to go to school,” he says.

Sibusiso has two younger sisters who walk to school too - a cause of great concern for him.

“I worry about my little sister. She leaves with other children without any parental supervision,” he says.

Attorney and LRC regional head in the Makhanda office, Cameron McConnachie, says learners affected by lack of scholar transport usually fall into one of three categories - the first being those who have to walk extreme distances.

From arriving late to school and missing lessons to their school shoes wearing out at rapid rates to having to miss school when it rains.

McConnachie says this has a massive impact on these learners.

“And often children just drop out so that has a huge impact,” he says.

He also says some parents try to “make a plan” to pay for private transport - often resulting in them “going into extreme debt” or finding their learners accommodation closer to school.

“But then they lose out on parental support, guidance, oversight. And it really has a terrible impact on families.”

The court papers state how “the courts have held that scholar transport is an essential component of learners' constitutional right to a basic education”.

“Without it, many learners are unable to access school, rendering their right to education moot,” they read.

PARENTS ARE DESPERATE

Nolufefe Mqanqala lives on the banks of the Mzintlava River - at the bottom of a steep mountain escarpment - in Dikidikini. She dropped out of school in grade 2 because of the treacherous 10km trek up that stands in the way of the village’s children and the closest school: Mneketshe.

Now 41 years old, she cannot read or write and fears her children will suffer the same fate.

“I hope my children make it to and pass matric. I always encourage them to not give up like I did. I encourage them to hang in there because they will reap the benefits of perseverance,” she says.

Last January, the village took matters into its own hands and converted the local church into a satellite school for the lower grades.

But the court papers set out how this is “wholly inadequate”.

"It is made up of a single classroom. The ‘classroom’ is the village church, which is constructed of mud bricks. The structure is old and dilapidated. The roof leaks, causing discomfort for learners and teachers whenever it rains. This hinders effective learning,” they read.

“The satellite school mainly caters for learners in grades R to 3, but a handful of learners from grades 4 and 5 also attend. It has one qualified teacher and three assistant teachers. Having only one qualified teacher to teach 73 learners across grades R to 5 is unworkable.”

They also point to the “unsustainable” cost, born largely by the SGB “given the lack of income of the families from which the learners come”.

Meanwhile, Nqabile Nale lives 10km from Toyise where her 19-year-old son, Masonwabe, is in Grade 10.

She says she has been left with no option but to turn to a loan shark to get him to and from school after the scholar transport, he was receiving last year, came to an abrupt stop this January.

Nale and her family - including her husband and three children - rely solely on social grants and Masonwabe’s school commute eats up almost a third of what they get.

She feels let down by the government.

“I was so disappointed because we hoped that transport provision would be free but now, we have to pay. I can’t afford to pay for the transport,” she says.

This is just one of a raft of fundamental challenges facing learners in South Africa now - along with the issue of overcrowded classrooms.

In 2018, the LRC also took to the court for an order for the Eastern Cape Education Department to build new classrooms for four severely overcrowded schools.

Four years after the order was handed down, the ground has only just been broken at Mnceba High School - with some 28 new classrooms now due to be completed by the end of the year.

And in the meantime, more than 100 learners are still being crammed into a classroom at a time in some instances.

Seventeen-year-old Lerato Mosala is in matric here, and as a result, won’t get to enjoy the new classrooms. However, she believes they will make a huge difference in her schoolmates’ lives.

“I think it is going to be a good thing because we have a huge number of grade 8 learners because the pass rate at this school is pretty high, so students from different locations want to come here,” she says.

When it comes to overcrowding, though, McConnachie says there are estimates that as many as 5,000 classrooms are needed in the Eastern Cape to bring them all in line with the Minimum Norms and Standards of Public School Infrastructure.

Looking back on the last 30 years broadly, McConnachie says there has been “a slow-burning crisis” in education and that despite the distance covered, there is still a long way to go.

To address things like the shocking number of children who cannot read for meaning and who drop out of school before they reach matric, he says, we need “to create conditions that are as conducive as possible for teaching and learning to take place”.