Thursday, July 5, 2018

Schooling: Battle Of Wills

There seems to be a great wrangle -- a battle of wills -- over farm schools. I am more closely familiar with Zuuranys Primary School in the Eastern Cape. The government informed locals that they were looking at closing the school, and they would need to school their children in Uitenhage, 125km / 80mi distant. Parents said: Send our little children that far? Then the government failed to provide a needed teacher for 2018. Attendance at Zuuranys fell from about 50 last year to 20 this year. A government official came over the pass to Zuuranys to ride the distance. He arrived at Zuuranys farm and said: "Phew, is it this far?" The locals told him: You ain't seen nothin' yet! Wait till you get to see where the other children come from! One of the children who was displaced by the loss of a teacher last year commented: "There are 57 children in my new class (since being transferred from farm school). 55 failed the class." OBSERVATION: The farm schools are sought after. People send their children from the villages to the farms for schooling.

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