Long Walk To School fails Rural Pupils

Pini Bothoko | Monday March 13, 2017 16:50

Recently during Parliament session, Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed concern over the long distances that some children as young as seven years are forced to walk daily to get to school. The concerned MPs said that the impact of the distance is revealed in students’ low performances at school, which for years has been contributing badly to the country’ s decline in results. The MP for Letlhakeng/Lephephe constituency Liakat Kablay is  concerned by the long distances that some children in his area are forced to walk daily. “You cannot expect a child to walk 14km to school daily and look forward to good results from that child.

Children in my area walk long distances from Maratswane to attend lessons at Malwelwe during rainy seasons and hot days. This is sad and not pleasing at all, something needs to be done,” Kablay said. Kablay said that travelling long distances to school, the learners arrive late and tired hence unable to concentrate in class. “When a learner finally arrives at Malwelwe tired and hungry, even when a teacher is standing in front of them teaching, they fail to concentrate,” Kablay said. He said that it’s been years since he complained about this matter in Parliament pleading for it to be addressed for the sake of the innocent souls. He said in the past, the school was allotted donkey carts to rescue the situation, but they also failed because the area has too much sand.  “Le fa sekotsekara se laisitse bana se gogiwa ke ditonki, owaai! se felela mo tseleng, ba a se fologa ba bo ba se etelela kwa pele. Jaanong ke re rraetsho ke one mathata a e leng gore ke ne ke kopa gore re thusiwe,” Kablay said.

The MP for Goodhope/Mabule constituency, Kgosi Lotlaamoreng II also said some children in his constituency walk long distances to school, something that might be contributing immensely to their poor performance. Kgosi Lotlaamoreng II gave an example of small children who walk daily from Marojane to Hebron, or  from Malokaganyane to Digawana or from Molete, often  in harsh weather.

“This is so sad. Just imagine such small children walking such long distances to school. I am pleading for at least two classrooms in those villages where children can attend their first levels until they are grown up enough o walk  to those primary schools where they are schooling now,” Lotlaamoreng II said. 

Meanwhile still at Parliament the MPs raised a concern of shortage of resources in schools. They said that schools are faced with shortage of classrooms, textbooks and other critical support measures.