Cape Town - Clutching a doll’s head, the Grade 2 pupil whispers that she hasn’t returned to school because she doesn’t have a schoolbag. “My mother hasn’t bought one yet,” the barefooted little girl from Wallacedene said, adding that she spent her days playing with her friends.
She was not the only child in the area who spent Thursday roaming the streets, just a day after the start of the new school year.
Two teenagers claimed to have been chased away from school because they had outstanding fees.
One mother said her daughter had missed the first two days of class because she was removing her braids.
A Grade 7 pupil said he had failed last year and when he returned to school this year he was told there was no place for him.
In just over an hour in Wallacedene on Thursday, scores of children of school-going age were playing in their yards, riding bicycles or chatting to friends in the street.
Many said their parents had gone to work.
One mother said her son, 8, had never been to school because he didn’t have a birth certificate. Asked why a nine-year-old boy who was playing with her son was not in school, she said: “He didn’t want to go.”
Nora Tafafeni from Women of Wallacedene, which aims to get Wallacedene children back into school, said the situation was worrying and getting worse.
In 2013 the Cape Argus also reported on the high levels of truancy in the area.
“We are all grannies but we want these children to have the opportunities we never had. The government is giving them these opportunities but they don’t use it. Anything can happen to them while they are alone during the day.”
The problem is not unique to Wallacedene. In Manenberg, Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, who was in the area to conduct a safety oversight visit at schools, found the same problem.
“I don’t have school shoes,” said a little boy when Plato asked him why he was playing in the street instead of being in class.
“He is lying,” replied another, who said he was in Grade 2 but would only be placed in a class next week.
One woman told Plato that her 16-year-old grandson was not in school as he had left his previous school because he had been beaten twice in a bid to force him to join a gang. She was now trying to get him into another school.
Other youngsters his age said they had given up on school and were looking for work instead.
Plato said he would report the problem to Education MEC Debbie Schäfer.
“We will have to begin with a drive in this community to get the children back in school.”
Plato said there had been a heightened police presence in the area since the start of the school year.
“My concern is for how long will this be able to continue. But I’m thankful that children can go to school safely at the moment.”
In South Africa schooling is compulsory for children aged seven to 15 and Schäfer’s spokeswoman, Jessica Shelver, said it was against the law that these children were not going to school.
“We will investigate this matter as a matter of urgency.”
Cape Argus