And the kids of Santa Ana aren't the only ones who have a hard time going to school. The villages south of San Felipe, Toledo are filled with children whose schools are either closed or who are forced to travel hours and miles to get to class. And after two years of distance learning, it's an even heavier strain on their academic development.
And the Minister of Education says he feels it and he's working with the Ministries of Infrastructure and Rural Development to remedy that situation, but it's no easy task.
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"The rural road network is a massive challenge, that's a massive undertaking, and in particularly in the south. There has been a lot of neglect over many years so it's an ongoing challenge and I absolutely applaud the work of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Rural Development, they're trying to do everything that can to assist, whenever we call upon them, they jump, get out there, get their equipment out there and try to help. But every time you fix something, it rains, it washes away, these things requirement permanent fixes, we're talking about big issues today, we're discussing big issues that require substantial investments, they require long term planning, so the rural road network, no secret, that's a nightmare and I have talked about this for many years, I absolutely feel so, so terrible when I see our young people in these rural communities having to walk miles because the bus can't go into their community, so they have to walk out to the bus, and some of them have to get up 4:30, before 5 in the morning to walk out through mud and water to get to these communities."
"It negatively impacts their academic development, you have kids getting to school, they're tired, you have students getting to school late, very late because of the roads, you have some not getting to school at all for a few days whenever you have rain and that sort of thing so obviously these are basic needs, these are fundamental issues, and we're not able to address them, they negatively impacts our children and our students so we feel very strongly about it at the Ministry of Education and I tell you every single day we work very closely with Rural Development and Infrastructure Development, whenever anything pops up, we try to address it as soon as possible."
