A long walk to school

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Friday October 8, 2010 00:00

The issue of ease of access becomes even more poignant when comparison is made between the rural and urban dwellers.  While children in the towns walk much shorter distances, those in the villages cover long distances to school. The differences that exist between how the children of the poor and those of the rich get to school reflect the social and economic disparities that exist between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. In other words, whether the child commutes on foot, donkey cart, bicycle, family car, contracted or public transport will always be consistent with the domestic economy of the particular family. The quality of the mode of transport and its mechanical condition is also a statement on the people concerned.

While Botswana has made admirable development strides since independence, it is worth noting that rural development is less than impressive especially in terms of infrastructure.

Most would agree that it is not enough for a government to build schools, hospitals and the like. It is crucial that the services provided should not only be of good quality but should be affordable and, therefore, accessible to all regardless of gender, social class in the name of social justice. For instance, a community, which cannot access health care because the nearest health care centre is too far, is justified to complain of discrimination. Nor is it just to avail a school when the potential beneficiaries cannot access it due to distance or lack of financial wherewithal.

Many children in the North East District, for example, travel over 16km daily to and from school. Some people tend to downplay this reality, arguing that walking is a good exercise and provides the walker with the opportunity to meet friends.

Maruje Junior Secondary School in Masunga in the North East District, enrols children from the villages from Masunga, Vukwi (about 5 km), Letsholathebe (about 8km) and Mosojane (about 9kms) to do their three-year Junior Certificate (JC). Built in 1990, the school has been providing its services to the neighbouring villages since then.

Eighteen-year-old Kelebogile Modichaba of Mosojane completed her JC at Maruje secondary school in 2008. She now runs a family kiosk. Modichaba relates the ordeal of having to get up at 4 am in winter every day to prepare to go to school for three years. For those who made it to senior secondary school, the commuting lasted for five years. Although she travelled by contracted transport to and from school, there were times when she could not make it to the road on time whereupon she would be left behind. Even then, the transport owner would still demand full payment at the end of the month.

Tshireletso Jameson,16, is doing his Form Three at Masunga. Declared a needy person, his transport fees to a contracted combi are paid by the government. Because of the rigidity of the transport schedule, he has to skip extra-mural activities. Nor can he stay after school for revision with friends because the combi will not wait for him.

Twenty-something year old Tabuya Jameson, an uncle to Tshireletso, says that children who commute long distances to school have fewer hours of sleep since they have to get up early to prepare to go to school. 

Likewise, 16-year-old Naibo Mulingo and her younger sister Kakale Mulingo, 13, are doing forms Three and One respectively at Maruje. Their parents pay P150 per month per child for the combi, which transports them to and from school daily. They wish the teachers could forgive late coming because, during the rainy season when the road which goes straight from Mosojane to Masunga is impassable because of the rivers and streams, their combi must go back and then detour to Malambakwena, which is connected to Masunga by tarred road. This makes it difficult for them to arrive at the school on time. Lake coming, for whatever reason, traditionally attracts stiff punishment from the teachers.

Fifty-year-old Kesotlegile Mobita has got two children schooling at Masunga. Her view is that the village of Mosojane has been neglected for too long in terms of developments. For example, she feels that if the road to Masunga had been upgraded, there would be regular public transport between the two villages. This would provide commuters with many options and perhaps better deals in terms of transport fees since there would be more vehicles on the route. Those who walk are exposed to harsh weather conditions like extreme heat, cold and rain, which often soaks the children and their books. Children from poorer families, she says, are even ridiculed by others because their parents cannot afford money for transport.

Mobita's sons, 12-year-old Luzibo and 17-year-old Ompone, are doing  Form One and Form Three respectively at Masunga secondary school. They alternate between walking the whole way, hiking or using a combi depending on the availability of resources. Because of the transport situation, the children hardly have any spare time especially at home to do revision or study save on weekends or during school holidays. The situation is compounded by the fact that when they get home, children are usually expected to do domestic chores. 

Florence Benjamin looks after hers and her sister's daughters. After losing her husband in 2007 as well as her job as a maid at around the same time, she is finding it hard to cope with the demands of schooling for both girls.

Her other daughter, 22-year-old Gosaitse Benjamin, completed her Form Five at Masunga Senior Secondary School a few years ago after successfully completing her JC  at Maruje Junior Secondary School earlier. She alternated between walking and riding a combi depending on whether the parents had money. Gosaitse says that it is common for children to miss school especially if the rivers are swollen and the pupils do not have money for transport via Malambakwena village.

Fifteen-year-old Boitshoko Benjamin, a Form Two student, walks to school every day because he has no option.Unable to cope, his mother intends to visit the social workers with the hope that government would agree to shoulder the transport expenses for her daughters.

Gofaone Makila, 15, walks 8km every morning to Maruje Secondary School and the same distance every afternoon from the school to her home in Letsholathebe village. Cognizant of the fact that there is security in numbers, she is always in the company of other scholars in order not to be ambushed by criminals. Makila believes that if it were not for long distances, she would perform much better at school.

Galamoyo Malibamba and her husband pay P170 per month to the contracted combi for their child. She complains that her child, who gets up very early to go to school has to study until late at night in order to alleviate the issue of shortage of time. She is concerned that children never have time to rest because of the distance to and from school. She remembers that some time in the past, the community was asked to contribute towards the building of hostels as a solution to the problem of distance but nothing has so far materialised causing her a great deal of disappointment.

Koziba Letsholathebe, 16, and his sister, 13-year-old Ibo Letsholathebe are doing Form Three and Form One respectively. They say they are used to the long distance, which they reduce considerably by taking 'short cuts.' They reveal that while children are expected to remain behind for sports after school, they are not assisted with transport home at the end of practice sessions. They also state however that those who are in the sports teams are collected from home when there is a game at the school.

Fifteen-year-old Charity Chikonde maintains the short cuts are dangerous. The Form One student adds that she is grateful to her parents who, despite not working, have sacrificed so much for her education. Chikonde is looking forward to the completion of the hostels at Maruje secondary school.

Kgosi Filda Mosojane of Mosojane village, avers that the long distance travelled by the children to Masunga daily has an adverse impact on their academic performance. To support her argument, she reveals that in both 2004 and 2009, Mosojane primary school posted the best results in the North East District and Northern Region respectively. The sterling performance was not replicated when those children wrote their secondary school exams three years later. In fact, the children did badly.

Kgosi Mosojane finds it hard to imagine how a child can still be able to concentrate in class after walking eight to 10km. Besides the fatigue, the child will be inevitably contemplating the return marathon with understandable anxiety.

Maruje Secondary School Headmaster Mantswe Kealotswe says that as a school, they do their best to assist the pupils. He says, for example that the school releases them early when they think it might rain.

Community mobiliser Elias Mbonini says that the idea of building hostels at Maruje SS was conceived in 2000 by the Masunga community. At the time, the community was not concerned only about the debilitating distance to school but by the high crime levels in the area as well. The children were often attacked and deprived of valuables such as bicycles.

The communities of Vukwi, Masunga, Letsholathebe and Mosojane bought into the idea and a process of resource mobilisation began in earnest after a go-ahead from the central government had been obtained. Each village pledged money as follows: Mosojane, P50,000; Masunga, P20,000; Letsholathebe, P15,000; and Vukwi P10,000.

It was decided that due to resource constraints, only one hostel for the girls would be build during the first phase of the project. The project was given to the Mosetsi brigade to do construction. Skills Share International contributed substantially towards the purchase of material while the community, in addition to the financial contributions, collected coarse sand and gravel for construction.  The hostels were eventually completed in 2006 but could not be used because of water and electricity connection problems. Although the water and electricity problem has been solved since February this year, there have emerged a new set of challenges some of which are encouraging the villages, which have not yet paid their contribution, to pay up. Secondly, a watertight criterion is being sought to help in the selection of which girls qualify for the hostels.

The councillor of Mosojane village, Saul Duha says that problem of his constituents' children travelling long distances is a very old one. Duha is a first-time councillor having won the elections in 2009. He says, with the support of the area Member of Parliament (MP), Charles Tibone, he has made representations to the relevant government departments especially regarding the development of the road to Masunga which road is a put-off to would be transport runners. A transport operator himself, Duha says that he once put some of his combis on that road but withdrew them because the vehicles were being ruined by the rough road.

Tibone says that as the MP for the area, he is, just like the parents, naturally concerned that children travel such long distances. He however pleaded with the parents and children to understand that it is not possible for government to build a school in every village. The MP said the expectations of the parents would always be higher than what government can afford. He said despite the gaps, government has constantly given education the highest proportion of the budget relative to the other government ministries emphasising that the gaps are not a result of lack of commitment by government but resource constraints.  Tibone is hopeful that the road from Mosojane to Masunga will be built as soon as the money is available.