Long walk to school for thousands of pupils

Nearly a quarter of a million pupils in Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay walk to school each day, with a new Stats SA report shedding light on the scale of the daily journeys many children undertake simply to access education. The figures reveal that 243,339 pupils in the two metros walk to and from school, with thousands spending between 30 minutes and an hour on foot each way. For some pupils in rural Eastern Cape communities, the journey is even longer, involving river crossings, dark winter mornings and worn-out shoes.

Behind the statistics are pupils such as a 17-year-old pupil from Mphintsho village in Ncera, who walks more than an hour each way to attend Tsholomnqa High School. When the Dispatch caught up with him shortly after 4pm on Monday as he walked home from school, he was wearing running shoes. The teenager said a pair of school shoes lasted him only about two months and that his grandmother, with whom he lives, could not afford to replace them regularly.

He wakes at 5am every day, leaves home at 6am and arrives at school at about 7.30am. After school, he still has household responsibilities. “After school, I still have to do house chores like fetching water and cooking before I can do my school work.” The data comes as the province continues to grapple with a scholar transport crisis that has left thousands of qualifying pupils without assistance despite a Makhanda High Court ruling ordering authorities to provide transport to eligible pupils. According to statistician-general Risenga Maluleke in compiling its recent State of the Metros report it was found that 99,113 pupils in Buffalo City Metro walk to school.