By Ilse Fredericks
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Other children her age have already started high school, but 13-year-old Christolene Swartz has never attended class.
The teenager spends her days with a family member in Bonnievale while other children in the town go to school.
Asked if she could read or write, she whispered: “No. It doesn’t feel nice when I see the other children go to school.
“I stay with my aunt during the day and when I’m done playing, I go to bed early.”
Christolene was one of several children Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and Bonnievale residents found at home in the town on Thursday, during an anti-bunking campaign called Nek-omdraai vir Stokkiesdraai (wringing the neck of truancy).
The aim of the campaign is to encourage parents to take better care of their children and to become involved in their schoolwork and the management of their schools.
The group went door-to-door to check for truant children, and spoke to their parents or caregivers.
Swartz’s mother, Sera, said she had tried to register her daughter at school with a clinic card and her ID.
She said the problem was that she didn’t have a birth certificate for Christolene.
“The principal cannot refuse, it is illegal,” Motshekga told her.
She said one of the questions with this case would be in which grade to place Christolene, since she was far older than the average Grade 1 pupil.
At another home, the group found a young boy, sitting outside a house, who said he was in Grade 5. He had dropped out of school and it was believed he was involved in a gang.
A third boy claimed he had been asked to stay home to baby-sit.
According to the provincial Education Department, the reasons for not attending school include children looking for an income, dropping out because of difficulties with the curriculum, and parents keeping their children at home to look after younger siblings.
Pupils also became involved in gangsterism or substance abuse.
Ilse Fredericks
Cape Argus
The Guardian 