Parents taking their little ones to school in terminal
Don’t Miss That School Bus!!!
Don’t Miss That School Bus!!!
Busy Port of Spain on a Saturday exuberates an air of
innocence as children travel from school with their doting parents or guardians
and the brave few who travel on their lonesome. Port of Spain and San Fernando
are the major points for persons travelling to and fro school. The fact that
these cities are the major stops on almost all Trinidad bus routes explains why
most persons have to pass through either of these cities to
According to Alexander (1990) highlights that the long
distances travelled by children who go to small rural district schools results
in the majority of their school budget is spent on transportation. Though there
are school in these more rural areas the best schools are in the more urban
areas, as more urban areas tend to have better services. Children going to
school in more rural areas of Trinidad have to travel extremely far from their
homes to go to the best schools in Port of Spain. According Ms. Francais and
her thirteen (13) year old daughter Rania to the best schools such as St.
Mary’s Fatima, Holy Name Convent which are considered to be the best schools in
the island, are all located in the city of Port of Spain. These schools are
considered “the best” because in order to attend these schools primary school
students must receive over 250 marks in the common entrance examination. These
schools are ranked based on common entrance marks.
Those children who live in more rural areas who are so
unfortunate to pass for one of these city schools, experience great difficulty
in getting to and from school in a timely fashion. According to Ms. Francais
children like her daughter wake very earlier for school and get home during the
mid to late evening depending on the traffic. Ms. Francais complains that this
puts unnecessary strain on her daughter and the children in similar situations
as these children as these children are often extremely due to the fact these
child spend on average more than four (4) hours traveling daily, which cuts
into their sleep time.
1.1
Graph showing the distance travelled in time and in miles
Nevertheless, parents of these children refuse to remedy the
distance issue by sending their children to closer schools that are in their
rural neighbourhoods on the basis that they would like their children “to get a
better education, (Ms. Francais). These parents believe that the only for their
children to truly succeed is to be sent one of the many “top” schools in the
city. This could be to the detriment of the rural communities in which they
live. According to Rojas (1989) when rural dwellers seek employment or
schooling outside of their rural community, in cities and towns, the rural areas
suffer a great loss. These persons who could possibly contribute meaningfully
to the advancement of the rural community end up contributing to the further
development of the urban areas in which they work or attend school. If the
brightest children are sent to city schools, rural areas suffer in that the
schools these areas are well funded by government, they do not receive many
scholarships, they are not well acknowledge for their academic or sporting
achievements. These schools often become margialised and poorly funded, Rojas
(1989) argue that politicians and government should do more to develop rural
areas as well as urban areas instead on pool all of the resources and revenue
in urban areas. He argues that this would increase the countries overall productivity.
However, there are some
exceptions to this rule. There are some prestigious schools in the southern
areas of Trinidad. For example the Naparima Colleges (NAPS) for boys and girls
are the shiny beckons of the south. Both of these school are well known for the
brilliant student they produce. These schools However, are in San Fernando, a
city in the south of Trinidad. This means that children who live in rural areas
of Trinidad still have to travel to the city in order to attend a “good”
school. Nevertheless many children like Rania Francais make the daily sacrifice
to travel to school with little complaint; being heavily convinced that it is
for their benefit. Hopefully some brilliant mind will recognise that brilliance
can be natured in rural areas as well, so that these children can get a “good”
education closer to home.
Sources:
I don't see any children in the photograph.
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