M.Sc. (Environmental Management) / This study explores the school-commuting phenomenon that occurs across the city of Johannesburg, with specific reference to inner city private schools. It was hypothesized that the school commute, much of which has its origins in spatial apartheid, is financially and socially unsustainable. As spatial apartheid continues to dominate the urban landscape in Johannesburg, it is posited that overall, the school commute hinders the City of Johannesburg’s progress towards becoming a sustainable city. In particular, a sustainable city has both sustainable social systems and a sustainable transport system, amongst other things. It is argued here that in Johannesburg, the existence of nonsustainable social systems in formerly designated ‘black only’ residential areas, such as dysfunctional and poorly resourced public schools, is driving a school commute to inner city private schools. In particular, historically disadvantaged individuals, who were forced under apartheid to reside on the urban periphery, are the ones who do the longest and most expensive commute to school. For the learners and parents, this decision to enroll in inner city schools comes at a financial cost, for transport, and in time spent commuting, which is lowering the overall quality of life for these families. The study is limited to inner city, low cost private schools within the City of Johannesburg (CoJ). The respondents were parents or guardians of learners enrolled in these schools. The study found that the majority of learners enrolled in these schools resided outside of the inner city itself, mostly in former designated ‘black-only’ space. The overwhelming majority of learners were black and identified with various tribal groups, although Zulu was the most dominant. They hailed from lower middle class to upper working class homes. Parents had elected to enroll their children in these inner city private schools, rather than in geographically close-to-home schools for reasons associated with academic performance, discipline and the perceived quality of the teaching. It was clear that local township schools were shunned by these parents who were prepared to spend significant amounts of money on the school commute and have their children spend more than 30 minutes getting to school each day instead of enrolling them in no-fee township schools within walking distance from home.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:11630 |
| Date | 01 July 2014 |
| Creators | Machard, Deborah Catherine |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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