School transport shortfall: 100 000 KZN students stranded

193 893 learners across the country cannot get to school through government’s Learner Transport Programmes and 84% of these learners are from KwaZulu-Natal.

Briefing the parliament on Tuesday, the Department of Transport identified 237,066 learners from 1,571 schools in KZN who needed transport in the 2023/2024 financial year.

However, only 74 359 or 31% of students from 433 schools were transported.

This is an issue that has persisted for several years but is a slight improvement from the previous year.

According to the department‘s presentation, seen by The Citizen, of the 179 318 learners in need of transport in KZN, only 73650, or 41%, were transported in the 2021/2022 financial year.

87.8% of the learners nationally were not transported.

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Excelling provinces

The presentation noted that Limpopo serviced 93% of learners in need of transportation, while Gauteng serviced 95% of the learners who needed transport.

Northern Cape was among the best performers, with 26,776 of 26,783 learners in need being transported. Only six schools had not been completely serviced.

Furthermore, two provinces transported more scholars than the number that was initially identified as being in need of the service.

The Western Cape transported 67,222 while only 63,820 were listed as needing assistance.

Additionally, Free State transported 9,958 learners while 1,527 more scholars were earmarked in need.

According to the Western Cape Department of Education, special circumstances should be taken into account which may increase the number of learners provided with transport.

“Unplanned events arise that require transport support, such as flood damage to schools resulting in temporarily accommodating learners elsewhere,” it said.

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1 in 5 children who need school transport can’t get a ride

Similarly, in December 2023, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) admitted that many learners in need of transport to school are being left behind.

DBE former minister Angie Motshekga disclosed that approximately 900,946 students in 5,635 schools require learner transport in response to parliamentary questions.

Over 193,000 students, or 21.5,% of those eligible did not receive the transportation they needed with only 707,069 learners in 4,196 schools being transported.

According to Motshekga, budgetary allotments to each province were used to support learner transport programs, which were then provided and prioritised by the provinces.

She said that the number of children it could assist was constrained by provincial budgetary restrictions.

In order to lessen the demand for student transport, the department pushed provincial governments to construct more schools.

“The learner transport programme at inception was an interim solution to provide access to education where there is a shortage of schools.

“Provinces have been requested to collaborate with infrastructure units to build schools where there is a higher demand for learner transport programme and relief pressure on the transportation of learners,” the department added.

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