Civic group pokes holes at the draft document
Equal Education (EE) has come out swinging against the KwaZulu-Natal department of education’s scholar transport draft policy.
EE has been waging a fight with the department as early as 2017 to ensure it has a proper transport policy that will accommodate pupils who walk punishing distances on foot to and from school, often over difficult and dangerous terrain.
The fight culminated in a court order handed down by the Pietermaritzburg High Court in October, obliging the department to release the draft scholar transport.
The department last month finally published the draft policy for public comment.
One of the proposed policy positions of the department is that a pupil who goes to a public school and travels a minimum distance of 3km to the nearest appropriate school qualifies for transport.
“The school principals shall inform learners who applied for learner transport whether their applications were successful, and in the case of those learners who were unsuccessful, inform the learners’ parents or guardians in writing of the decision and reasons why their applications were unsuccessful,” reads the draft policy.
Zanele Modise, the head of national organising at EE, said the draft policy was vague, incoherent and failed to meet the standards for improving pupils’ access to education. “Throughout the draft policy, there are many instances where there are either no time frames or extremely vague time frames used to determine when obligations must be fulfilled,” Modise said.
“For example, the draft policy does not state when caregivers must apply for learner transport, nor does it indicate when the department should provide learners and caregivers with a response. Furthermore, the draft policy fails to explain the application process that a learner or caregiver must follow when applying for learner transport.”
EE has called on the department to amend the contents of the document to, among others, develop a long-term plan to address funding issues, clearly stipulate the different responsibilities of the department and provincial transport department, and set clear and explicit time frames throughout the draft policy.
Parents and other stakeholders have until tomorrow to comment on the draft policy. Muzi Mahlambi, the spokesperson for MEC for education Kwazi Mshengu, said EE was just looking for media attention.
“First, they wanted a policy and now that it’s available, it’s vague. Surely they don’t know what they want except to be in the media all the time,” Mahlambi said.
