Rural education needs more resources, study

Despite 10 years of democracy, the great majority of children in South Africa's rural poor communities are educationally disadvantaged, according to a recent report. "Worse still is the fact that this will have long-term effects on their opportunities for development, their capabilities and their lives. Moreover, the communities in which they live will continue to suffer the debilitating effects of poverty and inequality for as long as these problems remain," said the study, 'Emerging Voices: A Report on Education in South African Rural Communities'. A survey in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces found that poverty and unemployment were "starkly present in the everyday realities" of people living in rural areas. Unemployment in the Eastern Cape stood at 54.6 percent, and at 49 percent in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. The report produced by the Nelson Mandela Foundation noted that "poverty conditions the ability of families and children to engage with education", particularly among "households facing food insecurity on a daily basis". "They live in those areas of the country with the highest levels of poverty and unemployment, and rely on meagre sources of income derived from pensions, social grants or migrant labour." Land and livestock were vital to their survival and their sense of themselves. "Household decisions to send children to school are strongly influenced by these economic, social and cultural contexts. In the absence of income, employment and food security, families have to rely on the labour of children to help make ends meet," the researchers found. Children were often pulled out of school to assist in crop cultivation or livestock farming. Although there was much support among parents and communities for educating their children, "this support is constantly undermined by the conditions of life imposed by poverty and unemployment". The costs of school fees and uniforms were a major concern for parents and learners. "They prevent children in poor households from going to school, and create tensions between poor families and schools," the report commented. The inability to pay for school fees and uniforms, as a result of coping with hunger, "means that the experience of schooling is associated with shame and humiliation - children are often sent home if they cannot pay fees". Although legislation provided for exemption from fees when parents were unable to pay, many parents were unaware of the procedures, or even the possibility of being granted an exemption. According to the study, 57 percent of schools surveyed said they had an exemption policy, but fewer than 12 percent of caregivers said they knew about it. "Information, it would appear, has not been passed on to parents ... From the point of view of principals, fees are necessary to pay for the most basic of facilities," the report pointed out. While school feeding programmes have played an important role in ensuring attendance and meeting the nutritional needs of pupils, "there is evidence of mismanagement and unreliability in the administration of the schemes", the study noted. At some schools, food stores were used by teachers, while other schools did not have cooking facilities. Ill health, HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy were also identified as barriers to education in rural areas. These factors were highlighted as the key to high dropout rates in rural areas. "In Limpopo, one out of six children in each household surveyed was out of school ... one out of every four in KwaZulu-Natal, and one out of every five in the Eastern Cape," the report observed. Apart from the impediments of poverty to continuing education, the study added that many learners dropped out of school because of poor educational experiences and discouragement by teachers. It quoted one dropout as saying, "I remember my Tsonga [language] teacher saying how bad I am; she also said that I would never succeed because all of my relatives, whom she knew, never succeeded ... I thought about it and realised she was right." The report concluded that while the "advent of democracy has opened up the possibility of a better life for all through rural development, in the short term, formal democracy has not resulted in development in these areas, whose histories have been to serve as labour reservoirs for the mines and factories of the urban centres". For the full report go to: www.eldis.org