Early on Tuesday morning, several children, most of them primary school-aged, clambered on to the back of a bakkie, making their way to schools in Mitchells Plain from their homes in Khayelitsha. The two townships, the former mostly coloured and the latter black, are separated by a stretch of road.
However, when it comes to education outcomes, they are significantly different, at least in the minds of black parents in Khayelitsha.
Every morning, thousands of children are transported from Khayelitsha to Mitchells Plain, as their parents hope that the “better” schools in the coloured township will improve their children’s future prospects.
Unfortunately, despite well-established government policies regulating scholar transport, the decision parents often take to get their children to better schools can be risky, with numerous road accidents involving learners…
