Disparity in schools

The area where we stay is just off the beach.  I know a lot of people in Jacksonville have traveled to Myrtle Beach.  The Summerstand area is a lot like there.  There are many guest house and hotels.  We are able to walk to shops and restaurants.  There is a bowling alley and theater nearby.  The walk to the grocery store, the Pick and Pay is a little bit further, but it goes thru a beautiful neighborhood. The houses and gardens are very nice behind the iron gates and concrete walls.  There is a school directly across from us.  It too is walled off.  They have a large modern building, a playground, and multiple athletic fields.
In contrast, Emafini where we are working, is a township school. A township is a separate location where Black Africans, Colored, or Indians were moved to during apartheid area. They are on the outside of the cities. The houses are a mixture of shacks and government houses. The infrastructure is poor in the township. The school does not have many resources. There are holes in the floor and cracks in the windows.  Class sizes are large. Students who attend do not have to pay fees like at an independent or private schools.  They are all given a free lunch. They come from houses that do not all have electricity or toilet facilities.  Poverty plays a definite part in these learner’s lives. There is a definite disparity between these township schools and the schools that cater to the upper and middle class.  The administrators, teachers, parents and local community have all talked about the inequalities in education.  They are all stakeholders in this problem.  I have mentioned in a previous blog that the youth is the future of a nation.  I hope for the students in Emafini that this change in educational policy comes soon.