VOA教育报道2023--Children in South Africa Walk a Long Way to School

Children in South Africa Walk a Long Way to School

Fourteen-year-old Luyanda Hlali walks 10 kilometers to school. She lives in the little village of Stratford in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.

There are no school buses. There is only the long road where robbers and bad men can harm her.

Luyanda is one of tens of thousands of children in South Africa who live a long way from their public school. The communities they live in are mostly rural and poor.

Observers say students having to travel long distances to public schools shows the country's inequality when it comes to attending school. It has been nearly 30 years since the nation ended its apartheid system and the African National Congress party took power bringing democratic change.

There is a lack of school transportation paid for by the government.

Girls face the threat of attack and robberies are common. Parents, local leaders, and activists² say the situation increases existing inequalities. The World Bank says South Africa is the most unequal country in the world.

In KwaZulu-Natal, campaigners and activists are pressing government officials to provide transportation for over 200,000 schoolchildren. The children have to walk three kilometers or more to school.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's government policy requires officials to provide transportation for the students who have to walk that distance. But school buses are not a concern in an area where unemployment is over 25 percent and people are poor.

A 2020 Amnesty International report said a child's experience in South Africa "still very much depends on where they are born, how wealthy they are, and the color of their skin."

South Africa's education system, the report said, "has deep roots in the legacy³ of apartheid, but which are also not being effectively tackled" by the government.

In KwaZulu-Natal, more than 30 percent of the province's 12.4 million people are unemployed⁴. Many say they have to choose between buying food or paying $19 a month for public transportation.

"Sometimes these children go to school without eating breakfast," said Bongiwe Nhlangothi, Luyanda's grandmother.

She is the most scared when her grandchildren are traveling.

"There are drug addicts⁶ around here, when they come across the children in the early hours of the morning, they rob them of their phones, threaten them with knives and try to rape⁷ them," Nhlangothi said.

A school principal in a village about 50 kilometers from the coalmining town of Dundee, told of his struggle to get more school buses approved. The principal said some of the school's female students had been raped⁸ by local criminals.

The school has two old buses, but they can only carry about 65 children. There are more than 400 students at the school. The principal said he fears one of the buses could permanently⁹ break down or crash.

In September 2022, reports said 18 students were killed in the province when their overcrowded minivan crashed on the way to school in the town of Pongola.

Some parents have decided¹⁰ to pay to have their children to live closer to their schools. But boarding a student is costly¹¹ and leaves parents without help at home.

Activist¹ Tebogo Tshesane works for the nonprofit organization Equal Education. He said the campaign for better school transportation across KwaZulu-Natal started back in 2014. It started after students wrote letters because they were walking for up to two hours to school.

Government information says 1,148 schools in KwaZulu-Natal are on a waiting list for school transportation paid for by the government.

The provincial¹² department of education did not wish to talk to The Associated Press for this story.

The answer from the education department is that there is no money, so the children keep walking.

Words in This Story

province — n. a large part or division of a country

apartheid — n. the system of racial separation in South Africa which was legal until it was abolished in the early 1990s

legacy — n. what people leave to their children after they die

tackle –v. idiom to deal with

addict⁵ –n. a person who cannot stop taking drugs

principal — n. the leader of a grade school or secondary school

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

4 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

5 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

6 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

7 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

8 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

9 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

12 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。