By OBAKENG MAJE
Lack of scholar transport continues to have a negative impact in rural areas across the North West. Learners from Mokassa 1 village, near Taung, said it has been two months without scholar transport and they are now forced to walk long distances to go to school.
Recently, the affected learners marched to the North West Department of Education (Taung Sub-District office), demanding scholar transport. They alleged that lack of scholar transport leads to missed classes and potential educational setbacks.
A Grade 12 learner from Batlhaping High School, Reaobaka Goshupelwang (18), said they do not feel safe as they walk through the bushes to get to school.
“The situation is so grim and no one is willing to listen to our plea. We are now forced to bear the brunt and put our lives at risk in the process. Some of the learners are females and we are afraid that they might be raped one day.
“In most cases, we arrive late at school and some teachers will bar us from attending their classes due to coming late. This has a huge impact in our teaching and learning,” he said.
Another Grade 11 learner from Mankuroane Technical School, Tshepng Sesinyi, shared the same sentiments. Sesinyi said they have written a few letters to the principals, complaining about the same issue, but their plea fell in deaf ears.
“No one is taking us seriously and willing to listen to our plea. We urge the department to come up with a lasting solution in addressing this challenge because this is our future that we are talking about,” he said.
The North West Department of Education spokesperson, Mphata Molokwane said they are aware that some parents and a few learners arrived at the Greater Taung Local Education Department offices in taxis to voice their displeasure. Molokwane further said the parents were granted a hearing by the appropriate authorities, who oversee learner transport matters through the North West Community Safety and Transport Management.
“To address the concerns highlighted, the department promptly sent the learners a scholar bus. We may emphasise that service providers failing to uphold their end of the bargain, they are letting the Departments of Education and COSATMA down.
“Since learners’ transportation fails, we have asked principals not to lock gates for them. Punishing learners for tardiness when it is not intentional would be unfair. Again, we will speak with the principals,” he said. Plans for recuperation are implemented to account for the time lost in teaching and learning,” he said.
Molokwane added that the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management has received their entreaties to terminate the contracts of non-compliant service providers.
Meanwhile, the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management spokesperson, Charles Matlou said: “The department is aware of the matter through our monitoring process. There has been inconsistent provision of service on the route in question.
“The department has been in constant communication with the service provider. As an interim measure, we have requested one of the service providers with extra capacity to transport learners’ whilst a permanent solution is found.”
Matlou said the department regretted the inconvenience caused by this and urged the parents, as well as school principals to be proactive and make them aware of any challenges as early as they can. He said this will assist the learners not lose more hours of learning.
The Guardian 