GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Adendorp Primary School recently received brand new bicycles from the Nedbank Foundation, which will be given to thirty lucky learners selected by the school.
The project to provide rural children with bicycles was first piloted in 2013 in the Free State, in conjunction with the provincial government. Needy communities were identified by the Department of Education.
The long-term goal of the Nedbank Foundation is to make this a national project which will then focus in deep rural areas, where learners still travel long distances to school.
Adendorp Primary selected was identified with a need by Shirley Lange of the Care and Support Section of the Department of Education, in consultation with Nedbank Graaff-Reinet manager Vuyo Tomson.
Once the learners have been selected, arrangements will be made with the school to provide training on the care and maintenance of their bicycle. The traffic department will also assist in providing information on the basics on bicycle riding and road safety.
As the school is a fair distance from Graaff-Reinet, it is envisaged that the children will be able to use their bicycles to ride to town, as well as to get to school. A person on a bicycle can carry up to five times the weight of goods.
It has been shown that a child’s commute time to school is reduced by up to 75% with a bicycle, and research by Statistics South Africa indicates that the challenge of distance results in increased tardiness, frequent absenteeism, exhaustion and often the complete withdrawal of the child from the education system.
Bicycles are the most effective and economical method of quickly addressing this problem, and the management of Adendorp Primary School is extremely grateful to the Nedbank foundation for helping to alleviate these problems for some of their learners.
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