Children in Ramaphatle will now be saved the trouble of walking nine kilometres to and fro Thamaga where they have been attending school. The children will have a normal life like all their mates as they will no longer be forced to wake up very early in the morning. This has had a devastating effect on pupils as some have been forced to drop out while others will just not perform well as they would often get to school very tired to grasp anything. The greatest challenge for the school, like the headteacher indicated, is lack of facilities such as a kitchen and playing grounds. These are very important as they make the learning environment complete. The school could lose some of its pupils just because they do not eat at school while sport plays a very crucial part in learning as it keeps the pupils healthy. A healthy body is a healthy mind. We join the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Gladys Kokorwe, in urging Ramaphatle Primary School pupils as well as parents to take care of the school. No one should vandalise the school. Vandals must be reported to the police so that appropriate action can be taken. Everyone in the village should be proud of this facility and want to protect it at cost. Residents should, in fact, count themselves lucky because others somewhere still do not have such a facility. We would like to encourage the relevant authorities to speed up the process of providing the missing facilities so teachers can do their jobs properly. We appeal to government to build more schools in similar places like Ramaphatle as there are still many pupils who walk long distances to school. The situation becomes extremely bad for these pupils in the rainy season when most of them walk barefoot in pouring rain. The girl child is also exposed to rapists who lie in wait ready to pounce. The global credit crunch should not be an excuse for delays because these poor souls need to be protected.
