Donkey carts �drastically� reduce school dropouts
Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday October 25, 2017 14:01
However, statistics were not readily made available to show the extent of the reduction brought upon by the initiative. Specially nominated council member for Gantsi South, Thato Tshweneyagae revealed this at the United Nations Day where stakeholder engagement in the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was stressed.
He was part of a panel that discussed how stakeholder engagement is crucial for implementing the SDGs.
“High school dropouts by learners from Gantsi settlement is an issue of concern, but since the introduction of donkey carts, there has been a significant reduction of such cases, especially at primary level,” he added.
In an interview on the sidelines of the UN Day celebration in Gaborone, he explained that the problem was twofold.
“There is high absenteeism as learners preferred to stay in the farms and ride on donkeys and horses as opposed to attending classes, distance is also a factor as learners had to travel long distance to get to school,” he added.
He said the idea to use this mode of transport came about after the Gantsi community met through a platform called Citizen Dialogue - a platform where communities are given a chance to have a say on the developments they want to see in their respective settlements.
The Citizen Dialogue is a collaboration between Gantsi District Council and Ale Municipality in Sweden, aiming at instilling a sense of ownership to initiatives and developments among the Gantsi communities.
“The donkey carts solution was a recommendation from the community members themselves,” Tshweneyagae said.
He further said the reason they embraced the idea was that as a council, they are operating on a shoestring budget, hence they could not afford to buy mini-buses to transport learners. Beyond that, they were looking at the fact that donkey carts do not emit any carbon gases contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer.
The donkey carts initiative was highly criticised, but Tshweneyagae said it has been fruitful for the nine settlements in which it has been rolled out. Some of these include New Xade, Xabo, Chobokwane, New Xanagas and Makunda.
“There are always pundits. We have made the donkey cart weather-friendly, it has canvas to cover it during winter so that learners are not exposed to the cold weather and it is also covered when it rains,” he said.
The intention is to roll this out throughout the entire district. At the moment the initiative has employed nine donkey cart drivers each earning P1,500 monthly.