Learners from Opwag, outside Groblershoop in the Northern Cape, blocked roads with rubble and burning tyres this morning as they chanted for learner transport.
The situation came to a head this morning after a bus collected only half of the learners from Opwag, who attend Laerskool Uitsig, Laerskool Groblershoop and Hoërskool Groblershoop, and did not return to collect the remaining learners. This incident comes as learners have been stranded without access to school from the middle of August 2024, because the Northern Cape Department of Education is asleep at the wheel.
There are numerous challenges at the ZF Mgcawu district office that hinder the quality of education to learners in the area. At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the district to see to it that learners are managing to get to class on time and in roadworthy vehicles.
After learner transport failures were brought to my attention on 19 August 2024, I phoned the District Director. He said that they were aware of the problem and were addressing learner transport as well as catching up on lost school time. I reiterated my concerns in the recent presentation of the department’s budget to the Portfolio Committee on Education, where the head of department admitted that they were unaware of the problem until the MEC brought it to their attention.
I welcome the MEC’s commitments made during the portfolio committee meeting, to ensure that district offices are adequately capacitated and strengthened to play their critical role and will closely monitor progress in this regard.
It is unacceptable that the department still fails to monitor learner transport properly. It’s been six years since the learner transport function shifted from the Northern Cape Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison to the Northern Cape Department of Education and yet learners still bear the brunt of frequent service delivery failures.
How much longer must learners be stranded by the side of the road before the district and the department wakes up?