Four Mdantsane schools have turned to the courts to force the Eastern Cape government to provide transport to and from school for every pupil who qualifies.
The department recently indicated to the Daily Dispatch that it could only afford to provide scholar transport to 57000 of the 94000 pupils who met its criteria for scholar transport.
It is believed that the number qualifying for scholar transport is probably higher.
Mdantsane senior secondary schools Masivuyiswe, SK Mahlangu, Sakhisizwe, and Mizamo High School, represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Grahamstown, say that if government denied scholar transport to those who qualified for it, it was effectively denying them the fundamental right to access to education.
“While access to education obviously includes an obligation on the state to provide teachers, learning materials and safe infrastructure – before any of that can be enjoyed by learners they must be at school,” said the schools in papers before the Grahamstown High Court.
Bathini Dyantyi, the chairman of the Tripartite Steering Committee, which represents three of the four schools, said in an affidavit that the scholar transport programme in the Eastern Cape had a history of being poorly managed, plagued by tender disputes, riven with corruption and under-resourced.
He attaches dozens of Daily Dispatch reports over the years chronicling the programme’s failures.
He said his own three teenage children, who attended SK Mahlangu, walked more than 6km a day through fields, bushy areas, a small forest and a graveyard.
They left home just before 6am every day and arrived at school at 7.45am.
Although they walked in a group for safety, there had been numerous muggings and attempted rapes of pupils en route to school.
“My boys are so scared that they will not stay after school to participate in soccer or choir – two activities they both love – because then they will not be able to walk home in the safety of a group.”
The provincial education department has determined that pupils who have to walk a distance of more than 5km to get to the closest public school qualify for state-paid scholar transport.
The national policy sets the qualifying distance at 3km.
Dyantyi said all four schools had applied for scholar transport for the qualifying pupils but had been rejected on the basis that the department could not afford it.
He said the government’s failure to provide transport extended to thousands of other pupils who walked 10km or more to school.
“The children affected are almost exclusively black and poor, and come from the rural areas and townships of the Eastern Cape.
“Of even greater concern, however, is the massive number of learners who drop out of school altogether because they have no money to access transport to get to schools and the distance is simply too far to walk.”
Dyantyi said the new scholar transport model, which will see the transport department contracting directly with hundreds of individual transport providers instead of one large administrator, was supposed to be completely operational by mid-April.
But while the new system may result in an improved scholar transport programme, it will not see all qualifying pupils being transported.
The transport department aimed to transport only 65000 pupils this year – which means approximately 30000 pupils who qualify for scholar transport will not be assisted, he says.
Dyantyi said it was inconceivable that parliament could have made attendance at schools compulsory, and criminalised the failure of parents who failed to send their children to school, without intending that learners would be provided with transportation to school.
The four schools want the court to order the provincial government, its departments of finance, education and transport as well as the national education department to take various steps towards providing all qualifying pupils with transport to school.
Those deemed not to qualify should be provided with written reasons for their exclusion.
The LRC hopes to set the matter down for argument on June 4.
Schools sue for taxis for all
The department recently indicated to the Daily Dispatch that it could only afford to provide scholar transport to 57000 of the 94000 pupils who met its criteria for scholar transport.
It is believed that the number qualifying for scholar transport is probably higher.
Mdantsane senior secondary schools Masivuyiswe, SK Mahlangu, Sakhisizwe, and Mizamo High School, represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Grahamstown, say that if government denied scholar transport to those who qualified for it, it was effectively denying them the fundamental right to access to education.
“While access to education obviously includes an obligation on the state to provide teachers, learning materials and safe infrastructure – before any of that can be enjoyed by learners they must be at school,” said the schools in papers before the Grahamstown High Court.
Bathini Dyantyi, the chairman of the Tripartite Steering Committee, which represents three of the four schools, said in an affidavit that the scholar transport programme in the Eastern Cape had a history of being poorly managed, plagued by tender disputes, riven with corruption and under-resourced.
He attaches dozens of Daily Dispatch reports over the years chronicling the programme’s failures.
He said his own three teenage children, who attended SK Mahlangu, walked more than 6km a day through fields, bushy areas, a small forest and a graveyard.
They left home just before 6am every day and arrived at school at 7.45am.
Although they walked in a group for safety, there had been numerous muggings and attempted rapes of pupils en route to school.
“My boys are so scared that they will not stay after school to participate in soccer or choir – two activities they both love – because then they will not be able to walk home in the safety of a group.”
The provincial education department has determined that pupils who have to walk a distance of more than 5km to get to the closest public school qualify for state-paid scholar transport.
The national policy sets the qualifying distance at 3km.
Dyantyi said all four schools had applied for scholar transport for the qualifying pupils but had been rejected on the basis that the department could not afford it.
He said the government’s failure to provide transport extended to thousands of other pupils who walked 10km or more to school.
“The children affected are almost exclusively black and poor, and come from the rural areas and townships of the Eastern Cape.
“Of even greater concern, however, is the massive number of learners who drop out of school altogether because they have no money to access transport to get to schools and the distance is simply too far to walk.”
Dyantyi said the new scholar transport model, which will see the transport department contracting directly with hundreds of individual transport providers instead of one large administrator, was supposed to be completely operational by mid-April.
But while the new system may result in an improved scholar transport programme, it will not see all qualifying pupils being transported.
The transport department aimed to transport only 65000 pupils this year – which means approximately 30000 pupils who qualify for scholar transport will not be assisted, he says.
Dyantyi said it was inconceivable that parliament could have made attendance at schools compulsory, and criminalised the failure of parents who failed to send their children to school, without intending that learners would be provided with transportation to school.
The four schools want the court to order the provincial government, its departments of finance, education and transport as well as the national education department to take various steps towards providing all qualifying pupils with transport to school.
Those deemed not to qualify should be provided with written reasons for their exclusion.
The LRC hopes to set the matter down for argument on June 4.
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