"Enough is enough. No more road accidents here!" These are the words of learners and educators of Muthuhadini Combined School at Mpheni, near Elim Hospital.
Each morning and afternoon, the learners, supervised by educators, conduct a scholar patrol in the busy public road near the school. This is done to lower down accidents and to allow learners to cross the road safely to their school.
The school has been running the project since last year and they have been getting support from the departments of education and transport. Each morning, the scholar patrol starts at 06:30 until the lessons start at 07:15. It then continues in the afternoon from 13:10 to 13:30.
Schoolteacher Thilaiwi Magoba said 15 learners had voluntarily offered their services for the scholar patrol. "We get consent from their parents to participate. The children operate on a rotational basis. We have small children here, who find it difficult to cross the road to the school. This project is bearing fruit since we no longer have accidents involving our kids when they come to school."
Magoba said the drivers are cooperative. "They never pass through if the learners command them to stop. They are very cooperative, especially those who use the road on a daily basis."
Nomsa Gumbu (11), a Grade 6 leaner at the school, who also participates in the scholar patrol, says: "The scholar patrol is aimed at encouraging learners to use the pedestrian crossing and it also encourages road safety among the learners and other road users. Besides helping others, I enjoy doing this because I want to be a traffic officer when I grow up."