Rural schools suffer most due to suspension of school feeding programmes

Despite the distance-learning programmes that have been established by the Department of Education and many other independent service providers, rural schools and teachers are the ones struggling the most.

They are not familiar with these technologies, rural schools do not have the required infrastructure, rural learners do not have access to smart phones, tablets and data, they struggle with mobile signal availability and to top it all, they are hungry.

Teachers are committed and doing the best they can to weather these challenges, but are stressed out. Their concern for their learners is draining them emotionally.

“We support the president’s decision to lock down, but the vandalism at schools is destroying our already inadequate infrastructure. We are not there to ensure that learners stay informed and practise the prescribed preventative measures, such as washing their hands and so forth.

The emotional burden is immense and I feel powerless and unable to think past the current rules of lockdown,” said one teacher.

“There is a lot of uncertainty around the reopening of schools, so we cannot plan ahead because we do not know how much time we will have at our disposal to prepare the learners for assessment. The issue of poverty in our communities plays a pivotal role. It does not matter whether a household has parents or not, many children have to parent themselves.

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The non-availability of resources in a home where people are suffering from chronic illnesses, such high blood pressure, diabetes and HIV and Aids, becomes disastrous. Feeding people is of the highest priority,” said another.

Hannalize Coetzee, an educational psychologist at Hoërskool Nelspruit, agrees that this pandemic has brought all of us to a place we have never been before – and in a very short time at that.

“It is traumatic and even more so in the rural areas. The needs at every school will be different and so will the teachers’ ability to manage it. It is most important though that they focus on what they can do – now, today, immediately – because when one thinks about what can or should be done, whether doable or not, it just adds to the trauma and the feeling of hopelessness.

The more support there is for the teachers from the department, parents, the larger rural community, and the more effective the communication within these groups, the better.”

Dr Elize Kruger of the Department of Education works mostly with handicapped children in rural communities and she confirms the above references on infrastructure.

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“When considering the living conditions in these areas, social-distancing truly is a serious challenge. Most people living in towns have absolutely no idea of the challenges of rural living conditions.

We have to become mindful of the diversity within our society because children, inclusive of those in rural areas, are our future. The time for elitism has passed – rural children will be the leaders of tomorrow. We have to reach out as one human to another and teachers need our collective support.”

She also confirmed that the department is in the process of setting up structures to support teachers with tools and counseling to debrief from the trauma of this pandemic, once lockdown is suspended.

The short of this pandemic is that we do not have all the answers. It presents multiple and difficult challenges that need intelligent well-executed and mindful solutions from people with a thorough knowledge of the reality at ground zero. And yes, it is not always only about money, but about being there.

Do not do nothing – “do what you can with what you have where you are”.