Donkey cart transportation for Matsiloje pupils
Pini Bothoko | Monday August 24, 2015 13:59
This is already taking place in the Matsiloje area where children from Pobepobe lands, 15km from Matsiloje, village are currently being transported to school in a donkey cart.
North East District Council Chairperson Florah Mpetsane disclosed this when delivering the speech during a full council meeting last Thursday.
Mpetsane informed the council that the district has started benefitting from the initiative on transportation of school children staying in far-of areas to schools.
She revealed that council has engaged a donkey cart pilot for transporting Pobepobe children attending their classes at Matsiloje primary school.
She said that the project commenced on August 4 this year, explaining that pupils will be transported every morning to school and afterwards.
Mpetsane told The Monitor that the idea is a pilot project from the Ministry of Education, Skills and Development (MoESD) supervised by councils. She said if successful, the project would be rolled out to other areas in the district.
“We have received the donation of a donkey cart from Orange Botswana,” said Mpetsane. Asked about possible risks associated with transportation of school children in a donkey cart, Mpetsane said that the donkey cart is designed in a special way to accommodate young kids. She went on to say that these are rural community children who are used to travelling with donkey cart. “We believe there will be no accidents,” she said.
She said that donkey cart has protective steel iron to protect them from accidental falls together with a tent to cover in case of rains. Mpetsane disclosed that they are much more concerned with high cases of school dropouts in the rural areas.
She said that travelling long distances had children arriving late at school late and hence unable to concentrate in class. Mpetsane said that many children have dropped out from school due to walking long distances to and from school in the past.
She said that more children travel long distance to and from school in most of the areas in the district and she was hoping that if the pilot project succeeds, there would be benefits from the project. She said community members are also open to tender for three months for their donkeys to be used to transport pupils calling on those with donkeys to take advantage of the exercise.
“The individual who has won the tender is the one who is responsible for the safety of transporting the children. They are being paid through Ipelegeng,” said Mpetsane.