In clusters of fours and fives, some stopping on their way home from school to play games - they look very cheerful. They might not know the importance of this institution, but they are surely happy to be going to school.
Somewhere, in the village of Kumakwane, 14-year-old Baone* is a complete opposite of these children, some of whom are his age mates. All he is hoping for is that somebody should give a chance to complete his primary school education. He might be young, but he is old enough to understand the harsh realities of his life. Baone dropped out of school in Standard Three because he did not have uniform and or school fees. His aunt, Ledimo* says the boy ended up with her after his mother and father parted ways. She says that she has never seen the mother who left within a year of her son's birth. The father who is Ledimo's brother resides in Tlokweng. Ledimo said the mother of the boy disappeared and has never been seen in Kumakwane again. She says that prior to her disappearance, the woman pleaded with her to take the child under her care. She literary gave her the baby.
Ledimo says it was very hard raising up a child neglected by the father and mother. However, she tried all she could but the boy's school career had to come to a halt five years ago when she was very sick and no one was available to fend for him. "When I got back home, he had dropped out of school because he had no uniform. It was winter and he couldn't endure the harsh weather barefoot," she says.
