An 18-year-old woman sits at home with three children who do not have birth certificates, and there is no chance she will return to school after she dropped out three years ago.
“The distance was bad, especially on sunny days. I am not happy that I am at home while my peers are at school. But there is nothing I can do,” she said after collecting firewood in her home village in Madibe a ga Molema, 30km outside Mahikeng in North West.
Her mother, Betty Siamisang, does not receive a pension and has no income to support her family. She has five children, and only one of them attends school.
Some of her children are not receiving social grants because they have misplaced their birth certificates. Her grandchildren do not have birth certificates, preventing them from applying for social grants.
“My children dropped out of school because it is too far and requires them to cross a dangerous river when it rains. They were always fatigued when they arrived back home.
“Now I am at home with them, and both of my daughters have children, one of them is pregnant with her second child,” she explained.
The young women are among those in Tshunyane and Madibe a ga Molema villages who have dropped out of school because of the long distance they are required to walk to attend school.
Villagers estimate that more than 50 pupils have dropped out of school in the last two years. A fifth of them are pregnant or have babies.
Last week Sunday World reported that the North West legislature gave departments responsible for scholar transport until December to sort out the chaos that has resulted in pupils being forced to hitch-hike or walk long distances to school.
The North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management were hauled before the legislature’s portfolio committees on transport and education in Mahikeng on Thursday to account for the crisis.
The dysfunctional scholar transport has resulted in pupils having to rely on alternative modes of transport such as hitchhiking or simply walking to school.
The situation has caused high levels of absenteeism and fatigue among pupils.
Furthermore, more than 9 000 pupils who require scholar transport are not registered for it.
In Tshunyane and Madibe a ga Molema , the government has provided three scholar transport buses, which frequently break down. On most days, all three buses are overloaded, leaving the bus driver with no alternative except to leave others behind who are then left to walk the punishing 8km to school.
The parents believe the situation could have been avoided if the government had built a secondary school in their village, using the funds they pay scholar transport service providers.
Madibe a ga Molema chief, Elia Mongala said the situation in the village was dire.
“Scholar transport is a problem in this village. It caters only for children who are in high school. Many parents pay taxi drivers R250 a month, so that their children can be transported to school,” he said.
To compound the problem, the roads between the village and the schools in the neighbouring villages are bad.
“We are located in the middle of a dense veld, putting the lives of primary schoolchildren who walk nearly 5km to Tshunyane in danger,” said Mongala.
He said most young children in his village simply do not attend school.
“In my village, there are a lot of young children who are not attending school, some as a result of lack of birth certificates, others because of the long distance and lack of scholar transport. Some are not getting social grants,” Mongala said.
A parent who wished to remain anonymous said her daughter dropped out last year.
“When I was 16, I dropped out of school because I needed to help out financially at home. I am 40 years old, and life is difficult without education.
“My daughter dropped out of school last year while in grade 7 because she had to walk a long distance to school when the bus left her behind.
“She used to tell me that sometimes the school principal would lock the school gate for latecomers without consideration of the long distances pupils had to walk to get to school.
“I am afraid she will end up unemployed and without a formal education, like me.”
A resident, Mothibedi Mokhasi, said the village needs a secondary school.
“Our children travel from here to Matsha village to attend school, approximately 700 of our children attend there, indicating a need for a school. If we can remove our children from that school, I am confident it will be closed.
“We have heard that a service provider charges the government R60 per day for one child. We think that the R60s should be used to build a school here.
“We have no issue with the buses but they regularly break down and are overloaded. This puts our children’s lives in danger. If they can build us a school, they will save a lot of money from what they are paying for scholar transport,” she said.
Tshunyane only has a primary school that has enrolled 777 pupils from the village and Madibe a ga Molema. According to statistics in South Africa, 30.4% of residents in Tshunyane do not have any formal education. Only 8.3% completed matric and less than 10% completed primary level. Just 0.8% have higher education.
Just 32,2% of children of school-going age are in primary school and 23.9% in high school.
