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We were all teenagers once upon a time.

I was a nightmare, by most accounts, and I am eternally grateful that I will never have to relive the stress of writing matric exams.

Adulthood isn’t exactly a breeze. At least I don’t have to pretend to understand Sin, Cos, and Tan to make it through the day.

For 18-year-old Zinhle Jiane, just getting to school to write the end-of-year exams is an exercise in endurance. City Press tells the story of how every high school day starts:

…she has woken up at 4am to prepare to walk the 16km journey to school. She does this in scorching temperatures, cold weather and even when it rains, as she wants to be the first person in her family to matriculate… as some of her relatives had dropped out because of the distance…

“There is no service delivery in our area. We don’t have proper roads. As a result, motorists are forced to park their cars far away from our place and walk all the way down. At times we have to get water from the river. And we still don’t have electricity; I use a candle to study at night,” she shared.

Thanks to load shedding, there’s a degree of reliability but that’s likely where the similarities end.

Jiane lives in Waaikraal on the outskirts of Delmas, Mpumalanga, with her 78-year-old grandmother. At the crack of down, she starts a fire to boil water so she can shower:

“I usually leave home just before 6am to walk 16km to school. I have to walk barefoot because, by the time I get to school, my shoes are dirty and the white socks have changed colour. So, when I get to school, the first thing is to go to the bathroom to wash my feet. After school I have to walk for another 16km back home. It is by God’s grace that I have never been harmed, because I have to walk through a forest.”

I used to moan about not having enough legroom in the lift club on the way to school.

Then we would drive past Princess Diana’s favourite hangout, Tarrystone, the Constantia property once owned by her brother. That’s on the rental market for R290 000 a month.

Jiane said she feels prepared for the set of exams because she spent all of her spare time studying and education “was the only way out of her situation”.

All in all, perhaps this could serve as a bit of a reality check for the teenager in your home, who loses it when the WiFi drops for five minutes.

If you’re keen to help transform South Africa’s education landscape, check out Crew for a Cause and the excellent work they do in this area.

[source:citypress]