adminThe long journey through the narrow dew-sprayed path that wound into the graveyard, always gave me stomach chills.
With a brave face my sister Sarah would drag me along. Her loud breaths and tight grip of my wrist proving she was also afraid of “meeting” the witches. In our empty stomachs, we would still run out of fear of the ghosts. At least we never met any.
In rainy seasons it was worse. With no umbrella at home, our mother patched makeshift plastic raincoats from the used sugar packets collected throughout the year.
A stronger bag, she would design for the books. The plastics were too short to reach the feet. So we had to tread in the mud barefooted for 3km, only to wash our mud plastered legs in shallow wells near the school fence.
Many of my friends stopped coming to school. They were cancelled in the register. I did not see them again.
Sometimes my feet got swollen and stiff after walking the long distance so I would have to stop on the way for a rest. This always made my sister very angry, she would yell at me and yank me in frustration. I understood her fury.
The teachers on duty punished seniors and she was ever on the list because of me.
Sarah would not be angry with me for long though. She had to make sure I don’t cry. Otherwise I would tell mama about the tall boy who carries her bag from school. The dark boy who told Sarah he enjoyed fondling her breasts. Sometimes the boy was nasty with her, pulling her back and for the woods.
Fortunately, our father got a transfer in the army, and we moved from the village school into the army compound with him, the school was just a few minutes away. Life changed, going to school became exciting.
Sadly almost 20 years later, not much has changed about my first school. The graveyard now stretches wider and the pathways have tall grass and shrubs especially in the rainy seasons. I live in the city and have realised that not only are long distances to school for rural scholars living in poor road-networked villages. Many children in urban areas also walk for hours to and from school.
Urban girls are harassed both physically and verbally when they use public transport, young girls are accosted while walking on remote paths. While the experiences are different from situation to situation, the outcome is fairly common – it is no surprise that parents are unwilling to let their girls go to school under such circumstances.
This route-way, to and from school is in itself a landscape of process in which gendered power hierarchies help shape the meaning of pupils’ mobility patterns. The resulting mobility stories have profound significance for the life chances of those who are allowed – or prevented – from travelling.
When long journeys to school are coupled with required contributions to household labour demands, the impact on attendance is likely to be particularly strong. Girls mostly, find it more rewarding to engage in menial jobs in a bid to earn the family income than to walk long distances to school.
Routes to school have their own unique complexes, at least boys can deviate normal routes in the course of games and fights. Some boys are also more likely to refer to interactions with the opposite sex and “courtship” as a pleasure of the journey. However, for girls, home imposed curfews and uncompleted domestic tasks inhibit any form of play.
Traffic dust and dirt, traffic congestion and traffic dangers are other substantive issues on the journey to school in urban areas for girls.
Certainly, the negative impacts of longer journeys on mental well-being, physical health and schooling rear their ugly head for both by both girls and boys and raises a reason for early dropout.
Governments and development partners must collaborate in coming up with sustainable potential routes to improving safe school access, especially for girls. These include an expansion of girls’ boarding house provision and general boarding provision; experiments with adaptation of the walking bus concept to help children to walk safely to school in regions where dangers of rape and harassment are high; cycle hire centres based at schools, to help overcome the shortage of cycles available (especially) to girl children for travelling between home and school; girls’ training in cycle riding, maintenance and repairs and swimming lessons for girls, especially in rural areas where river crossings are sparse.
Various non-transport interventions are also needed, including those aimed at reducing girls’ time in domestic chores (improved availability of water supplies, community woodlots, grinding mills, etc) so that they have less work to do before the journey to school (and so that overstretched parents will be less inclined to withdraw daughters from school), and sensitisation of teachers and education authorities to transport/distance-related lateness and an end to the harsh punishments imposed by many on children who arrive late for school.
Today young people from all over the world will undertake the first ever youth takeover of the United Nations General Assembly, led by schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai.
Malala will mark her 16th birthday by leading the unique event calling for urgent prioritisation of education in failing states across the globe, supported by child rights organisation Plan International and many others.
The teenage activist who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban will take to the podium at the UN in New York to address some 650 children and youth, urging governments and leaders to tackle the issue of millions of girls and boys missing from schools worldwide.
An ardent campaigner for girls’ education in Pakistan, Malala was shot in the head by extremists as she made her way to school last October. The attack came just two days before the launch of Plan’s launch of its global girls’ education campaign.
This will be her first major public appearance and speech.
The UN youth takeover is calling for urgent action by member states to ensure they meet Millennium Development Goal 2 on education by 2015. Their inputs will also then feed into setting the agenda for global education priorities post-2015.
Plan’s own global campaign, “Because I am a Girl”, is working hard to support millions more girls to realise their right to an education currently denied by barriers such as child marriage and gender-based violence in and around school.
Plan International CEO Nigel Chapman said: “This is an extraordinary and truly landmark event which rightly puts both youth and education high up there on the agenda.
“Malala has become iconic in representing many girls’ difficult struggle to obtain their rightful education. But there are millions of ‘other Malalas’ across the world – a whole generation of girls and boys who are excluded daily from learning by violence, discrimination or harmful traditional practices. This momentous takeover day is about standing together and ensuring that their voices are heard.
“The passing of a historic youth resolution in the UN General Assembly is an important opportunity to call on the world’s leaders to do much more for education – to deliver on MDG promises and in setting the post-2015 development agenda.
“Education for girls is essential. They become aware and can learn life skills. In hard times, they can earn a livelihood and help support their family,” says Humaira, aged 18, Pakistan.
Angela Machonesa is the Communications Manager at Plan Zimbabwe. Feedback: [email protected]
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter