[LISTEN] New research examines Gauteng pupils school commute

2 July 2018 3:53 PM

For most South African children travelling to school still comes with challenges, including the cost of getting to a few top performing schools when living outside urban areas.

Researchers at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory are working to understand pupils' daily commutes in Gauteng and the effect of changing the current feeder zone policy.

The policy only allows parents to apply for their child to go to a school within 5 kilometers of where they live.

Researchers says it's the legacy of apartheid spatial planning which continues to perpetuate inequality in education.

Because the city was racially segregated, schools for certain population groups were then situated in those areas and were differently resourced. It means those people who live within the vicinity of that school, the school that they can access, may have fewer resources.
— Alexandra Parker, Researcher of Urban and Cultural Studies at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory

We did not necessarily find a relationship between learners travelling further and measures of better quality and part of that is because we do not have good measures of what makes a school better.
— Alexandra Parker, Researcher of Urban and Cultural Studies at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory

Click on the link below to listen to hear more on the study....

Written by: Neo Koza