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'Norms' of a disgrace

THERE is a social virus that is threatening our society: we are increasingly accepting as normal, or as a "norm", that which we should regard as shameful and scandalous.

Stories of tender rigging and corruption are becoming normal, no longer the exception.

In fact, what has become an exception is good governance.

Incompetency at all levels of government among the bureaucracy and the political leadership is now taken for granted.

We seem to be accepting that collapsing healthcare and education systems are just the way things are, or rather should be.

Incompetency and corruption are a permanent feature of the country's socio-economic landscape. Sadly, we are socialising our children to this corruption and poor leadership.

Take the case of pupils of Gareosenye Primary School at Dinokana village near Zeerust in North West, for example.

They walk about 7km to school daily because the provincial department of education closed Puana Primary School, the closest to Dinokana village.

Due to apparent political ineptitude, it did not occur to the provincial education authorities that the closure of Puana Primary School would mean that the pupils would need transport to attend the furthest school.

In another case in Gauteng, children from Orient Hills informal settlement walk up to 8km to reach Maloney's Eye Primary School in Magaliesburg.

The Gauteng department of education says according to its "norms" only those children who live 10km from their schools qualify for state-funded scholar transport.

There is something wrong with a "norm" that says a six-year-old Grade 1 pupil should walk 9km to have access to education and another 9km to return home.

This does not seem to take into account the dangers children face on their way to schools.

It's a "norm" that assumes that the weather is always favourable for such long walks to schools.

It's a "norm" that ignores the fact that some of the children have to cross dangerous roads and bushes.

It's a "norm" that assumes that the paths walked by the children are free of dangerous criminals.

More importantly, this "norm" does not seem to be in line with the government's policy for compulsory primaryeducation.

The long trips to and from school that the children of Maloney's Eye, Gareosenye and many others around the country endure should be treated as an abnormality and a scandal that has to be changed.

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