SOUTH AFRICA: 26 years into democracy, education is still a challenge for many students in KwaZulu-Natal Province (KZN), South Africa. While some of the KZN’s transportation problems have been handled, many young children still find it difficult to go to school.
A group of kids in a small rural town of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa says they have to go through different challenges just to get educated. The nearest school for this rural area is about 47 km away from their homes. To get to school they have to cross rivers, climb mountains, find their way through dangerous places that may end in them never coming back, and this, on a daily basis.
They all have to wake up at 3 am in the morning to get ready for school. Their journey begins at 5 am and it takes four hours on average to reach school doors. Despite the effort, they are almost always late for school as occasionally things happen on their way, and they are also not in optimal cognitive conditions as they also feel very tired. This makes eight hours a day walk to and from the school.
Apart from the evident lack of transportation, the school infrastructure itself is very poor. Kids have to study under trees as they don’t have proper buildings nor classrooms, leave aside adequate equipment.
The community is asking for help from anyone who can assist in providing transportation so that their kids can go to school. Unless they get proper education, kids will fall off short on how to be able to take care of their families in an adequate way and improve the overall conditions of the next generations as a whole.
