I heard on the radio recently that in this country, some 75% of learners have to walk to and from school in order to attend classes and then get home afterwards.
It would appear it’s seemingly of no real impact on society or the economy until you are the one doing the walking.
In rural areas, the houses are not necessarily laid out as per city regulations and stipulations in nice neat rows.
Housing is haphazardly arranged on whatever level pieces of ground is available.
So, here is a house, there is a house and sometimes the ground between is unsuitable for wheeled transport.
Therefore, learners have to hoof it to school.
Getting to school in urban areas is easier but not really geared for the easy transportation of learners.
The best school transportation model is in the United States, where, in some areas, the ubiquitous yellow school bus does the fetching and carrying.
This seems to be an established institution but only workable because of the wisdom of town planners.
There it seems that city residential blocks are laid out with uniform player rectangular plots with houses side by side like dominoes.
The result is that the maximum number of learners are loaded up with the minimum distance of travel needed.
In South Africa in the old days, the towns grew slowly, with people living in semi-detached homes, blocks of flats or above the shops.
This also meant many learners in a concentrated area got to use the municipal bus service.
What is that you say? One may be confused as municipal bussing is almost a dinosaur. Long dead and buried. Never to rise again.
So, simply put, that is the reason why 75% of learners walk to school.
Our country is really not the trendsetter now, nor in the past, in the theatre of public transport and the taxis are a poor substitute.
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