School bus go-slow riles MPs

20 May 2015 - 02:19 By Babalo Ndenze

Angry MPs in parliament's basic education oversight committee criticised provincial education departments yesterday for dragging their feet in arranging school transport for rural pupils. Basic education department officials were also accused of tabling an "atrocious" document on the issue, with DA MP Annette Lovemore saying it should be thrown in the bin.Department of Transport officials failed to attend the meeting.ANC MP Derick Mnguni said he recently reported on two schools facing transport problems in Mpumalanga."We wrote so many letters to the department and nothing has happened. A week or two ago they went on a strike in those communities," he said.DA MP Desiree van der Walt said she had done "plenty of solidarity walks" with pupils from various villages to their schools."You are not caring for the learners and I get very angry about this," she said.Lovemore said learners in Nieu-Bethesda, where there was no high school, dropped out after Grade 7 because their parents could not afford to send them to boarding school in Graaff-Reinet...

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